Welcome to my little corner of the world!

Almost done . . .

2012-01-29T19:40:00.001-06:00

Well – after working on my new scrap desk for what seems like FOREVER, its almost done!!!

I have to say, after working on this thing so long, I am really kind of tired of thinking about it! LOL For everything I did right on it, I did about 3 things wrong, too. haha But all in all I am happy with how its turning out. Its not perfect, but its cute with a large work space and tons of storage! I am on the last step – adding a few coats of polycrylic to it. That’s not going so well . . . I am seeing lots of brush strokes, which I am not like at all. I really wanted to just get a glass top for it, but I’m afraid that will cost me a small fortune to get. I really need the extra protection of the polycrylic though – this desk will be used a LOT. My last desk was glass, and it was so easy to clean up spilled glue, glitter, ink, etc.

I tried to make it look like the PB desk as much as I could, but I did add a little extra decoration to it. I saw someone online had bought a headboard and put appliques on it. I thought it was really a cute idea so I went to DoItYourselfChic and ordered a couple of rose appliques to put on the front and back of the desk. I really like how it looks on it. Definitely very girly! :)

So I have learned how to miter corners of wood, use a caulking gun, use wood filler, drill holes, and probably a few other things in between. haha

Well – I’m off to try to get this stupid polycrylic to go on right. Have a great evening!

Steph

In the mood to make something!

2012-01-20T09:10:00.002-06:00

I have been on Pinterest for a while now. I have to say I am probably addicted to it. I absolute love it. There have been so many times when I have found a website that I thought was cool and either forgot to bookmark it, or then my bookmarks just disappeared into thin air (yes, I know I should have backed them up!). So Pinterest is a way to bookmark every cool thing I find on the internet. But not only can I bookmark what I find cool, I can also bookmark something cool that someone else has found! So if you aren't on Pinterest, you should probably check it out! Anyway - on to making things. On Pinterest I searched for a craft desk. I found a few that look like the thousand dollar PB desk, only way cheaper. So I got the brilliant idea to do it myself. I am known for my bright ideas that never seem to materialize - or don't turn out as planned. Well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed here and hoping this particular project turns out as planned, because if it does it will provide me with a LOT more storage in my scraproom, and as all scrapbookers know - storage is a GOOD thing! So for the last 2 weeks (by the way - in all the tutorials they say this can be done in a weekend - well apparently I am really slow. haha), I have been working on this desk. I hope to have it finished by the end of this weekend. I have made countless trips to Menards and Lowes (our only home improvement stores in town). Lowes, by the way, is the only store that will cut wood for you. I think Home Depot will too, but I am not near one. So if you decide to do a desk yourself and do not own an arsenal of saws or don't want to risk the danger of using one, then find a store that will cut it for you. I have found that some of the hardware store people are helpful and some just roll their eyes at me because I have no clue what I am doing (well that only happened once - and maybe I imagined it - but still). So when it is all done I will post some pics. I am getting way excited about it though because while I had a good desk before, it just wasn't as functional as it could be and this one will be! Stay tuned!

Welcome to 2012!

2012-01-04T09:16:00.003-06:00

Hi, all! I know its been MONTHS since I last posted and I bet you thought I decided to quit blogging altogether. Actually I wondered that myself. LOL I kept thinking I should get on here and update but I never did. I get into these funks where I think I really have nothing interesting to tell anyone so why bother. I really do lead somewhat of a boring life! Then the holidays came and went . . . and I still could not gather the energy to do a blog post. I know - its sad, really, when I follow so many terrific blogs and on each and every one of them, they all find the time to blog if not daily, at least weekly. So I thought since its a new year, how about a new post? :D I hope everyone is enjoying 2012 so far. Its been a crazy couple of weeks here. Not only did I have the holidays to prepare for, but my daughter, who has been living at home since the end of her internship in September, was accepted into a GA position at a college near St. Louis. She has been looking for an athletic training position since graduating, but has had no luck. She went on a few interviews, but she couldn't get any of them because she isn't licensed yet - she had to wait until this month for her graduation date to show up on her transcript, in order to even apply for her license. Well, she found out that she got the position for GA and they wanted her there in 2 weeks! That meant we had to quickly find her a place to live. She made a few calls and found a couple of apartments to look at and we went down on a Tuesday to look at them. So last Saturday, we moved her into her new place. Its a cute little apartment - its tiny but its only for her, so it doesn't have to be huge. Other than the noisiness of living in an apartment building, I think she likes it here. Its fairly close to the university too, and right down the street from it are a lot of shopping places, which is a huge plus. There's even a big hobby lobby there - I thought that was surely a good sign! LOL She is hoping to get her masters in education and will be an athletic trainer for the wrestling team. I really miss seeing her here every day. She worked at a daycare for a few months, since coming back from New York. She liked it there a lot (other than the diaper changes! haha). I know it was hard for her to leave there - she was already attached to a few of the kids. She would come home every day for lunch because it was really close to our house. I really miss that. I worry every day about her but I keep telling myself - at least she isn't in New York anymore! :) I really wish I didn't worry so much. It seems to be my best trait, unfortunately.

This year didn't start out so great for my son. He and his girlfriend just broke up, and even though he is trying to be all strong and act cool, I know it bothers him a lot. So I'm hoping things look up for him really soon! He just finished his first semester of college and did really well in all of his classes. I couldn't be prouder of him!

I have been reading about everyone participating in the 365 photo challenge (this year its 366 though - due to Leap Year!). I thought about doing it again - and then remembered that I failed the last time tried this. haha So I just decided to snap away whenever I think of it without any pressure to do it every single day! I hope I can continue to post more frequently, I really do miss blogging!

I interrupt this regularly scheduled Sunday for an important announcement . . .

2011-08-21T14:53:00.001-05:00

I scrapped this weekend! LOL I haven’t scrapped in a LONG time and it felt good to get out the paper and glue! I worked on a layout of my daughter’s college graduation. I had already printed out the pictures for this particular layout a while ago but just never could get the motivation to do the pages. I lifted the design from a layout that was on the Scrapbook Generations site. This is the local scrapbook store in Springfield, MO that holds all of my friend Nikki’s Sivils’ events. They have a great store, and if you are in the area, stop in and do some shopping! The ladies there are awesome! Anyway – the design was perfect for this layout because I had just the right number and size of photos and that almost never happens! Here’s a picture of the whole layout (minus the corner that I accidentally cropped out of the photo. heehee):

The paper is a random bunch of paper I had laying around. the darker purple is Basic Grey swiss dots, and the purple patterned is some that I got at Michaels a while back.

Here is a picture of the date stamp. I had won this a while ago through my friend Katrina, and Unity Stamps. I love this date stamp so much, but don’t use it often because its on the larger size, but it really is a cute stamp. I did do some embellishing to it, though. I stamped the date stamp on white cardstock, then cut out a yellow scalloped circle with my Cricut Mini Monograms, to frame it. Then I cut out a smaller circle to put in the middle (this actually covers up part of the stamp that are the days of the week). Then I used a Fiskars paw punch and punched first in white and then in a purple stripe to sort of layer it. I also stitched around the inner circle with yellow and white twine. I told you I was feeling crafty. LOL The border punch is a Martha Stewart punch. Oh – and I used my Thickers to put the ‘11 on the bottom corner.

For the WIU, these are foam letters that I had purchased way back when my daughter first went to WIU. There is a scapbook store about 7 miles away from where she went to school. We discovered this by accident one day. It was a happy surprise. LOL The black letters are Thickers. I love this font. I also used some black bling (can’t remember the brand right now but its at Michaels!). I attempted to make a black tiny paw print out of the bling as well. The little diploma is a Studio G stamp stamped on yellow paper and cut out, and then outlined with my glitter pen.

The font used on the journaling is from Kevin & Amanda – its Milk & Cereal. The heart is a different font – its called Efon. Who knows where I got it, but I use Dafont a lot, so maybe there. I love downloading fonts.

You can now carry on with your Sunday! Just wanted to make this grand announcement because who knows when it will happen again. Talk to you soon!

Just some random thoughts

2011-08-20T11:31:00.001-05:00

Here it is August already! Where is the summer going??? I want June back again! I really hate when summer ends, the pool closes, the weather turns colder, the days get shorter . . . I am definitely a warm weather person. I always have been. When people talk about ski trips, I think “why would you want to do that?”. I also have the same thoughts regarding sledding, snowmobiling, or anything else that is done out in the cold and snow. So when summer ends, I know fall is right behind it and then . . . the dreaded winter. My daughter comes home in 2 weeks. She is still in New York doing her internship, and absolutely loves it there. She would like to stay there, if a job becomes available. I miss her, and hate that she is so far away. When she told me recently that she really wants to stay there, I hung up the phone and cried. Literally. Two of my good friends were texting me, helping to cheer me up, but it still upsets me. I use to think the younger years were the ones where I would worry the most – the times when they hit their head and I checked their pupils constantly to make sure they were equal (yes – I worry way too much – plus I use to work in Pediatrics at a local hospital) haha Little did I know that when they grew up, I would worry even more. This is life, though, and every parent has to go through it, I suppose. It just doesn’t make it any easier for me to handle. As for my son, he starts college on Monday. He is going to go locally for a year and then wants to go to . . . California. Is this a test to see how strong I am? Because I’m not sure I will pass with flying colors! LOL

So . . . you see, I really do have a bunch of random thoughts going through my head these days. I have been trying to spend more time with friends lately, because my friends are always ones who lift my spirits and put a smile on my face. A few weeks ago, I went to my 30th high school reunion. Yes – 30 years has flown by in the blink of an eye. Some days I feel like that young girl again, and then others, I feel like an 80 year old woman! It was good to see old friends at the reunion. I worked on our reunion committee, and we had a really difficult time getting people to come to the reunion for some reason, so the turnout was not what we had hoped for, but for the ones who came, it was really nice to see and talk to them. I have to tell you a funny story about the picture we had taken at the reunion. We always have a photographer come in and take a photo of everyone, and then he brings the copies back later in the evening. Well, I was in the front row. I had my legs crossed. Apparently, crossed a bit too much, because when we received the pictures, my friend Sandy said “Steph seems to be missing something in this picture”. My friend Cathy looked at it and didn’t notice at first, and then all of a sudden she says “Where in the he** is your leg?”. My one leg was hidden behind my other one. So then they started thinking of names for me. The first one was Ilean because not only did I appear to have one leg missing, but I was also sort of leaning onto my friend Cathy in the picture (I swear I only had 1 tiny glass of wine the whole evening!!!). So after that I was called “the one-legged bandit”. Then the next week, my friend Cathy decided to call me Peg Leg. Lucky for them I have a great sense of humor! haha I have a habit of making a fool of myself in front of lots of people – its sort of a talent of mine!

Well – enough whining from me. Its Saturday and I plan to enjoy it. My motto is any time I’m not working is a great time for me! LOL So I will leave you with a few pictures, because a post isn’t a post without pictures! Have a great weekend!

This is what humidity looks like in my neck of the woods. LOL

Hummingbird taking off!

I’ve been into jewelry making lately again. One of my finished projects.

What a “I have to go potty” looks like.

Not sure what this look is. LOL

Sprinklers in my neighbor’s yard on a summer day.

My little girl relaxing outside.

A REALLY ugly big bug that was hanging out at my sister-in-laws house one night.

Just another one of my hummingbirds!

Playing with my macro lens. Just some leaves on one of my bushes.

Thanks for stopping by! See you again soon!

I’ve been a busy girl lately!!!

2011-06-23T16:10:00.001-05:00

Wow – the last few months have literally FLOWN by. Where do I even begin? Well, first off, in May, my daughter graduated from college.

We didn’t know for sure if she was going to participate in the ceremony in May or in December, because she is doing her internship this summer. So a couple of weeks before graduation we found out she could actually graduate in May. LOL Nothing like last minute planning! My son’s prom was the very same day as graduation. This is just my luck! So we went to her graduation at 1:00 and then I flew home to take pics of him and his date. It was a marathon day but luckily I was able to fit it all in!

Then, the first week of June, we (my daughter and I) drove to New York where she is doing her summer internship. She is staying with a good friend and her family, and was so excited to be going to New York. I drove the 16 hour trip with her, and flew home after a couple of days there. We took the train to see the city, which was a lot of fun. I got to see some of the highlights such as Trump Towers, Central Park, the huge FAO Schwartz where Tom Hanks played the piano at, haha (yes – I am aging myself but I loved the movie Big when it came out!). As we were leaving, we walked through Times Square. My feet were killing me from all the walking! I really wanted to go to the B&H store, but guess what? They are closed on Saturdays. Who closes on Saturdays? I mean, really? :) Here are a few of my favorite NY photos:

Anyway – after flying home, a week later I had to prepare for my son’s graduation from high school. It seriously makes me sad how fast they grow up. He is still working as a busboy and is working a lot this summer. He is planning on staying here for at least a year, going to school locally, then he is thinking of going to U of I in Champaign in a couple of years. At least that is the plan far now!

Last up is my recent trip to New Orleans. My daughter was asked to present her case study at the NATA conference there this past week, so I tagged along to see the sights!

Here she is with Jen Plos, who is the Assistant Professor of Kinesiology at WIU.

I was only there 1 full day, but I still had a lot of fun. I loved walking around the French Quarter, looking at all the wrought iron and there is a beautiful church and museum there.

Also, I visited the flea market and had a lot of fun walking around looking at all the things for sale.

The trees there were gorgeous. I don’t know what kind they are but I loved the pink flowers on them!

I sure wish I could travel more. I love to travel and see new places. This was my first time flying alone, and I was really nervous about finding where I needed to go, etc., but it actually was no trouble at all. I’m no expert by any means, but after flying home from New York alone and flying to and from New Orleans by myself, I definitely gained some confidence!

Well, thats it for now! No more trips planned in the near future, so the next big event is my high school reunion in July. I offered to do a photo slideshow, but so far no one has sent me any pictures. This should be interesting! haha

Here are a few photos from the airplane. I love seeing the clouds from their level! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

I Heart Faces!

2011-04-26T19:04:00.001-05:00

I wanted to share a photo I entered in the I Heart Faces contest - this week the theme is pets. As you all know, I have LOTS of photos of my little Westie! So I entered this one because its one of my faves! Hope everyone is having a great week! I'll post more later!

(I’m #689 in the contest!)

Talk to you soon!

Spring has sprung!

2011-04-19T14:11:00.001-05:00

FINALLY! Its finally spring! It has been hinting at coming but I think its finally here – and my trees are blooming to prove it! I have a flowering cherry tree in my front yard which I love to see bloom. I went out this past week and took some pics of the blooms. It looks so pretty when it blooms with the tiny little pink flowers. (you can see some pics below – in a LO I did of them) I know I’ve said it before but I just love spring. If it weren't for tornados it would be perfect. It always seems like when the weather turns warmer, I feel more like scrapbooking. I just recently went to a convention in St. Louis with my friends Nikki and Katrina. We had so much fun! I had this vision of taking all kinds of photos though and came back with just a handful! It really was a ton of fun though. We spent a LOT of the time in our room scrapbooking. It looked like a scrapbook store exploded in the room – we had so much stuff in there that we all needed carts to take it in and out from our cars. LOL Of course, along with the scrapbooking there was the vendor fair to shop at! And if its one thing scrapbookers do well its shop for stuff to scrap! LOL For a while, I had lost my love for scrapbooking. It made me sad, so I am so glad to be back to it, enjoying it again!

Here is Nikki and me, playing with her new Ipad2 photobooth app!

And here are Katrina, Nikki and me at the crop!

Since coming home, I have continued to work on getting more layouts done. Because I had taken so many photos of my cherry tree, I decided to do a layout of them. I was in hobby lobby the other day and found this gorgeous My Minds Eye paper and wanted to use it for this layout. Here are some pics of it:

I used a little bit of everything on this LO. Tons of Prima flowers, some little rhinestone and pearls for the centers of the flowers, some Prima swirly pearls, and I used some new mists that I just bought at the convention. They are Mister Huey from Studio Calico. I used Piglet for the flowers, and Lunch Tray for the flower leaves, and the word spring in the title. I love these mists. I had never tried them before, and Katrina told me how much she liked them, so I came home with 6 bottles from the convention. haha They have really fun colors too. One of their mists is from the State Fair line and its called Hot Dog. LOL I met Kelly Purkey at the Studio Calico booth. I have always loved her scrapbook style, and she use to live in Chicago, so I thought it was fun to actually meet her. She is always published in some scrap book or magazine – she has so much talent.

In between cropping and scrapbooking, I also just recently took some pictures of my nephew's little boy He just turned 2. I may be prejudiced but I think he is just the cutest little thing! Here are a couple of my favorites:

I was kinda nervous about taking his photos because I felt kinda rusty – I haven’t taken an actual person’s photos in quite a while! I think they turned out cute though. I was kinda surprised because I have been trying forever to get some good ones of my son for his senior pics and am having a really hard time getting some that I am pleased with. Maybe because he is my son and I am trying too hard! haha

Anyway – hope you are all enjoying your spring days! Have a great week!

A Spring-y birthday weekend!

2011-03-20T19:46:00.001-05:00

Today is the first day of Spring! YAY! If it weren’t for tornado season, Spring would be just about perfect! Its really my favorite time of year. I can’t wait until the grass turns green and there are leaves on the trees and flowers blooming. It won’t be long now! This weekend we celebrated my son’s 18th birthday. I swear I just gave birth to him yesterday . . . at least it seems like it! On our birthdays we pick wherever we want to go for a meal. He chose Cheesecake Factory. We don’t have one near us so we headed to St. Louis, or St. “Louie” as our GPS referred to it as. LOL My daughter was on spring break last week – she flew all by herself to Florida (yes – I was a nervous wreck!!!). She flew out of St. “Louie” and came back last night, so she stayed at a friend’s house nearby and met us for our birthday celebration. I love when the whole family is together (it doesn’t happen too often anymore, with my daughter in college!). So she arrived first and told them it was her brother’s birthday and asked them to sing to him. He HATES that. Which she probably knew and did on purpose. After all, whats a big sister for? heehee So, after singing to him, they brought him this:

He didn’t like the singing part, but had no problem wolfing the little dessert down. haha

Other than that, its been a pretty nice, relaxing weekend. Yesterday I decided I wanted to try out the Sure Cuts a Lot that I bought a while ago. I found a site that had some cute word art and you could pick sayings in different languages. So since my husband is Italian I looked up some Italian sayings. I found this one and decided to cut it out and put it in my foyer:

I think it turned out pretty cute! I used Renaissance font and cut it on brown vinyl. It means “Welcome to our home”! I REALLY love the V – I can’t believe it all cut out without ripping with all those swirls!

Well – thats it for now. I will leave you all with a cute picture I took of my little dog this morning. I took this with my 90 mm macro just because it was on my camera at the time!

Hope you all had a great weekend. Here’s to a speedy work week so we can all enjoy another great weekend! (Yes – I truly do wish my life away!!!).

Talk to you soon!

So dreary!

2011-03-05T11:22:00.001-06:00

Its a dreary, cloudy day here. A chance of snow showers and rain, too. I know – its March. Anything goes in March. My son was born in March. On the 19th - 18 years ago. On the day I had him, it snowed. I was so depressed because of the snow. I wanted spring weather. No such luck. But by the time I got home from the hospital, it WAS sunny and getting warmer by the day. So – see, anything goes in March in the midwest! :)

So what has everyone been up to lately? Same old same old here. I recently bought a macro lens – and have been trying to get some macro photos to see how the lens performs. Well – this is really hard in the winter. I love macro photography. I am always out at the park in the spring/summer/fall, taking pics of bugs, bees, flowers, anything really that will look cool as a macro photo. Its SO hard to do in the winter because I seriously lack imagination! So – since I have no other ideas and I just took water pics last week, I decided to take MORE water pics. haha See – I told you I had no imagination! So here is my second take on this:

I actually think these are pretty cool. I again used the tutorial I posted previously. I used flowered scrapbook paper as my background, and again used my off camera flash. I think these turned out better than the last attempt, but that’s just MY opinion! LOL If you have any other ideas on macro photography indoors, let me know! I love a good photography challenge!

Today I am planning on going through my mountains of photos on my computer and hard drive. I am thinking of printing some of them out and making some photo arrangements in my house. I figure, I take them and they just sit on my hard drives. I might as well get some printed and enjoy them, right? Hopefully I can find some I like enough to show off. I really want to do a big display of canvas prints above my fireplace, too. Just as soon as I can talk the hubby into letting me purchase them. haha

Talk to you soon and have a great weekend!

Steph

Playing with water!

2011-02-19T16:56:00.001-06:00

Hi guys! Its a BEAUTIFUL Saturday here in Illinois! The weather this past week has been like spring. Spring is my favorite time of year. I just love it. BUT – its only February, so I know it won’t last for long this time around. I am definitely enjoying this little teaser immensely though!

I frequent a few photography message boards and on one of them, some of the girls have been trying to get pictures of water drops. If your addicted to photography like me, you will understand the fun of this little project. If your not addicted to photography, you might be shaking your had thinking I have lost my marbles trying to get pictures of a water drop. LOL Hopefully your in the first group and don’t think I am nuts. So anyway – someone came across this tutorial and from there, everyone has caught waterdrop fever. So here is my feeble attempt at it. Let me just say, its not the easiest thing to get a waterdrop in focus! It was definitely fun to play around with though. I just used scrapbook paper as my background. I did use my external flash for this, too.

Well – hope you are all having a great weekend, and I hope it feels like spring where you are too!

Talk to you soon!

Steph

Lazy Saturday!

2011-02-05T20:51:00.001-06:00

Today I had planned on going out and running some errands. Well – I woke up at 9:00. Yep – slept in a bit, didn’t I? LOL I didn’t hop in the shower until 11:00. You see where this is headed don’t you? So instead of running my errands this morning, I sat around and did nothing. haha

After lunch, I decided to work a bit on my blog. I have been wanting to do a blog splash banner for a long time, but didn’t know how. Then I found a tutorial online and it was really super easy to do. Some day I want to take my photography to the next level so I am taking little steps along the way to get to that point.

Is everyone ready for the SuperBowl game? I am not a football fan but my husband is. We are going to a SuperBowl party and I need to bring a snack/dessert. I stopped by County Market this evening and they had cookie cakes all decorated for the game, so I picked one up with a big football in the center! Mmmm – too bad I can’t sneak a piece of it tonight. haha

Well I need to get going. I’m watching a show on the Discovery Channel and its pretty interesting! Hope you all are having a great weekend. Have fun watching the game tomorrow! Hope your favorite team wins!

Steph

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. . .

2011-01-25T15:32:00.001-06:00

Well – might as well enjoy it – we seem to be getting an awful lot of the fluffy white stuff lately! I use to HATE snow. I am still not a huge fan of it, but since getting into photography, I am definitely enjoying it a lot more! Here is what I took on Sunday – it was snowing huge fluffy flakes – they were absolutely gorgeous!

Don’t you love how they are all different! Some day I will have a true macro lens to take photos with – my extension tubes do a decent job, but I really want to do it the right way someday! Oh – but my photography wish list is a mile long!

A couple of weekends ago I went to a scrapbook crop with my friend Sandy. It was a lot of fun. They are held a few times a year at Camp Cilca in Cantrall. Its a cute little camp and the rooms are really not bad. It starts on Friday at noon and ends on Saturday at 5. I never think it lasts long enough, but that is usually the only time I have to scrapbook anymore! I started working on a mini album to put my snowflake pics in. I thought it would be nice to put them all together in a book. I will post a picture of it when its all done. I also started working on a cookbook for my daughter. Its an 8 x 8 album and I want to put some of her favorite recipes in. She will be 22 this year. Sometimes she calls and asks for recipes, so I thought this would be nice for her to have. I had made one for myself a couple of years ago and she really liked it. I still love scrapbooking but its really hard to find time and energy to do it these days!

So what has everyone been up to so far this year? We are planning our 30 year class reunion and I am helping with the planning. I am just now trying to find people on my list. Facebook will definitely help out a lot this time around. I have already found some just from looking there. I can not believe its been 30 years. Sometimes it seems like I just graduated. LOL Yeah – wishful thinking on my part, for sure! Seriously though – the past 30 years have FLOWN by. So sad how time goes so quickly. Anyway – I think the reunion will be fun. I wish I were about 80 lbs thinner but thats life I guess. LOL I am just hoping everyone else has gained a lot of weight too!!! Yeah – I already know several who have not. :(

Well – gotta go for now. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week. Talk to you all later!

Steph

Great contest!

2010-12-16T08:36:00.001-06:00

I just entered to WIN a $500 Gift Card to Adorama Camera – what could be better this holiday season? You can enter here: http://www.mcpactions.com/blog/2010/12/13/500-gc-to-adorama/

Its a blizzard here!

2010-12-12T15:14:00.001-06:00

Wow – what a difference a day makes! LOL Yesterday I was out shopping for gifts, not even wearing a winter coat. It was a little chilly without one, but not too bad since I was running in and out of stores. I had more shopping to do but thought I would do it today instead. Well . . . that is NOT going to happen! its cold, windy, snow is blowing everywhere, and its really hard to see! So I did the next best thing – took pictures! :) You know how I love to do that! I just wanted to do a quick post and show some of the ones I took this morning. Of course, there is one of my little girl in there – she had to model her Santa hat and collar. :)

Hope everyone is having a great Sunday! Talk to you soon!

Are you ready for the holidays???

2010-12-10T19:37:00.001-06:00

Well, I, for one, am NOT. Every year it gets harder and harder!!! This year I am having an extremely hard time figuring out what to get anyone. Even my daughter, who I usually have several things in mind for. The only one that is easy is me. LOL What does that say about me? Hmmm. My list this year is a mile long. I want just about everything. haha My most wanted item this year is an Ipad. I love that if I do a photo shoot with someone, and I have an Ipad with me, I can just download the photos right there for them to see. Plus I love using my ipod for internet at home, and I think the Ipad will be more portable than my laptop for that. And of course, there are all the apps that are so much fun to play with on it! I just recently got an Iphone and let me tell you – I LOVE it! My brother, the Mac guru is highly jealous. I finally have something techy that HE doesn’t have! LOL

So . . . if any of you have ideas on what to get people (namely my husband!) for Christmas, please share your ideas with me!

Have a great weekend!

2010-11-08T10:47:00.004-06:00

Hello everyone! Just a quick note for now . . . I am taking a photoshop e-course and wanted to spread the word. You can still get in on this one - today is the first day. The class is totally free and is open to anyone who signs up. I think she is holding the class open until tomorrow so you can sign up until then. If you can't take it this time, I think she offers it periodically, so maybe you can do it next time. I think it is a basic class - but I figure any class that teaches photoshop for free is worth checking into. You never know what you might learn! :) You can find more information here:

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I just wanted to post this real quick, in case anyone was interested. I need to get back to work now, so I will post more later! Have a great Monday! :)

Oh - and I hope you remembered to set your clocks back an hour so you aren't late for anything! :)

Some seniors to share!

2010-10-26T17:40:00.001-05:00

I hope everyone is having a great week! Mine has started out kind of crazy. On Monday there was a bomb threat at my daughter’s college. Then today, there was a “small fire” at my son’s high school. I am hoping the rest of the week is a bit calmer!!! Today, while the weather has been absolutely gorgeous (60’s and sunny), it has been really windy. I went out to pick up our garbage cans from the end of the driveway (Tuesday is garbage day at our house), and thought someone had taken them in already, as they were gone. Well, they had blown across the street to the neighbor’s yard. haha Oops!

I have been SOOOO busy lately! After I took the baby pictures, I was asked to do my niece’s senior pictures, then I did a friend of mine’s son’s senior pictures. I am sharing some of my very favorite ones from those shoots. I also did some of my son, but since he hates me sharing anything online, I will honor his wishes and not post any!

Oh – and as soon as I get to them, I will post some photos from the weekend. I met some Pea’s from the message board, and took some photos with them. I had a lot of fun in St. Louis. We went to Union Station, the warehouse district, and ate at Fitz’s and the Old Spagetti Factory. I love sharing photography with others who have a passion for it like me!

Talk to you all later!

Steph

2010-10-25T11:26:00.002-05:00

“Win a free Lightscoop on www.moms-with-cameras.com!”

Check it out soon though - time is up TODAY at noon CST!

October!

2010-10-03T20:04:00.001-05:00

I know every month I say the same thing, but this year is FLYING by! I heard someone the other day say there are only 90 days until Christmas! (there is even less now though!) How is that for depressing! I have been so busy lately that no wonder its flying by. It seems that every weekend is filled with things to do and the next thing I know its Monday and back to work. I have been taking a TON of pictures lately. I just love taking pictures, as you know. Its not only an addiction, and a very fun hobby, but its also like therapy for me. There is nothing like going out and capturing the beauty around me. Its funny how I really started to SEE things once I got into photography. I notice things now that I never would have noticed before. Everything is a photo opportunity.

My niece just had a baby girl and asked me to take some pictures of her. I jumped at the chance! I had this vision of getting all these cute poses, but she was having nothing to do with posing – and we also had hopes of a naked baby shot but she also wanted nothing to do with being in the buff. So, we got plenty of shots with her in a nice warm blanket. LOL But you know what – its ok. We are going to take more again, so maybe we can get some nakey ones then. LOL Here are a few of my favorites I took of her:

Right before the baby was born, my mother in law passed away. She was 86 years old. It was both sad and a blessing all at the same time. She had Alzheimer’s and the past few years have been rough on my husband an his sister. It was tough when she no longer knew her family. It got even tougher when she started having behavior that was so unlike her. She spent the last 3 years in homes – first an assisted living facility for a few months, then when she started wandering off, she went to an Alzheimer’s home. Then the last few months was spent in a nursing home. She slowly just started getting worse, not eating, sleeping all the time. . . so it was definitely sort of a blessing when she passed, as sad as that sounds. Throughout the years, she was such a wonderful mother in law and grandmother. She would have done anything for us, that for sure. The kids loved her so much and it was hard on them at the funeral. But I am sure she is in Heaven right now, though, talking to my mom! That makes me smile! She’s also with her husband now, and I am sure she is VERY happy about that!

Anyway – speaking of therapy – LOL - here are a few pictures I took today at the park. The ducks were so entertaining – it was apparently bath time. Oh- and I am also sharing a picture of my new camera strap I made this afternoon – I am really into ruffles right now and a tutorial was shared by Amanda from Kevin and Amanda on how to make this ruffled strap. I love how it turned out! I used a cotton fabric for the strap, and the ruffle is black fleece, because I knew I would not have to sew the edges of the fleece. haha

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Talk to you soon!

Steph

Goodbye summer . . .

2010-08-17T20:16:00.001-05:00

Well tomorrow school starts for my son. :( Not that I don’t like the peace and quiet of him gone all day, LOL, but I hate to think that summer is actually over. I love summer. I like fall too, but it seems that fall doesn’t last long and then its winter, which I really don’t like much at all. But its inevitable when you live in the midwest! Its been a nice summer, but it seems that I never have enough free time to actually enjoy it like I want to. I am still working my same job, so that means 9 hour days. I am off 1 day a week, but it never lasts long enough to get much done. Then the weekends are full of laundry, and a tiny bit of housecleaning, and then before you know it, its Monday again. And it starts all over! LOL Also, lately there has been some family stuff that has really got me stressed, and I’ve been saying lots and lots of prayers – I sure hope God is listening to me! I do tell him all the time though how thankful I am that he gave me my children – becoming a mother is the best thing that has ever happened to me and I truly am blessed.

This past weekend I did a little photoshoot for a friend. She has a teenage daughter and what teenager girl doesn’t like getting her picture taken? Here is one of my favorites of the bunch – I know she has a serious look on her face, but I just love this picture! I have a feeling this girl is going to break a lot of hearts!

Here is another one for you – this had to be my picture of the day because I thought it was hilarious! She made me promise not to post it on Facebook – though I really really wanted to! LOL

In other news, we moved our daughter into her first house – she is renting a house with 2 other girls at school. Finally she is out of the dorms and is very happy about that! She has been dealing with being a homeowner – she has had to do lots of cleaning and since the house has been vacant for a while she has had to kill a lot of bugs. LOL

Well – this post is short and sweet, but thats all I have for ya for now! Have a great week.

Steph

Hi, guys!

2010-06-28T21:30:00.001-05:00

Looks like once a month posts are all your gonna get from me. LOL Its not intentional - but that’s just the way it has turned out for the last few months. All the months just seem to run together anymore. I think it has a LOT to do with me working 9 hour work days. But I guess that’s life, huh! So . . . what have I been up to the past month? Well - the usual stuff, and then taking pictures and a tiny bit of scrapbooking! Also, I have had some new visitors to my home (outside, anyway). Hummingbirds!

I have been trying to get them to come and see me for a while now and they have finally figured out that I have food - and it must be good food because there is a steady stream of them all throughout the day! I have no idea how long they are here for, but I am enjoying them. I put the feeder right outside my window where I work so I can enjoy them the most.

Aside from taking pictures of my new little friends, I have been visiting my local park and taking pics of all the pretty spring and summer flowers blooming there. I just love taking pictures of flowers! Here is a picture of a Jackson Perkins rose. I can’t remember the name of this one but I thought it was beautiful! I just love those two colors together! I wish I had a green thumb and could grow these myself.

At the beginning of the month, I went to St. Louis and met some Peas (from Two Peas in a Bucket) and we took lots of pictures together. It was a fun weekend of enjoying my favorite hobby with others who enjoy it as well! Some of the girls brought their children to model for us so we could practice. Here is one of my very favorite ones – this little girl was just the cutest!

Then this past weekend, I went to Springfield, MO to Scrap-A-Palooza - a big crop held by Scrapbook Generations. My sweet friends Nikki and Katrina invited me to come and spend the day scrapbooking with them. I have only been to 3 crops so far but this one was the best one ever - they had shopping, instructional videos, tons of food, tons of outlets to plug everything in, we each had a big cropping space, and of course, the CHOCOLATE fountain! If you have never been to one and live in the area, I highly recommend going! Its tons of fun! The only downside was the couple of minutes when the power went out. haha Plus its a 5 1/2 hour drive from me- but that didn't stop me!

Well, I'm out of here - my comfy bed is calling my name! Talk to you soon!

Photography workshop!

2010-05-04T14:54:00.001-05:00

OK just a quick post because I am entering a contest to try to win a seat to this workshop. It looks like a wonderful workshop and since I can’t afford to attend by paying for it myself, I am entering this contest in hopes that my name will be drawn!!! Those who know me know I don’t stand a snowballs chance in ____ of winning, as I am VERY unlucky, but I can’t win if I don’t try, right? ;-)

Have a great Tuesday and wish me luck!

“I REALLY want to win a seat to Love Affair Workshop. GO read details and sign up to join in on the fun! http://www.loveaffairworkshop.com”

May Day!

2010-05-01T19:14:00.001-05:00

Yep. Its May! The months just keep flying by!!! Its also National Scrapbook day! I hope all my scrappy friends had time to either scrap or shop for scrappy stuff today. ;-) I started the day off going to Archivers! I don’t get there often since its a little far away but I had something big to return to World Market so I returned that in Shilo and headed to Archivers in Fairview Hgts. I was so good too – I only spent $17.00 at Archivers (with a coupon!). I got a new EK Success punch that is just the cutest thing. you know how you look at something and fall in love with it the minute you see it? That’s how I felt about this punch. I know its just a punch but I thought of a bunch of uses for it right off the bat, and since I just got my coupons in the mail yesterday, it was fate. LOL Its called “Real Estate Sign”. Here’s a picture of it:

After Archivers, I hit up some other stores in the area and then headed home. Now I am just waiting for my DH to get home and make steaks on the grill. He has been refereeing so much that he is never home anymore. I hate to confess this but I have never used the grill by myself. It really kind of scares me. LOL So I leave the grilling to him! Anyway – on the rare occasion that he is home for dinner, I figure its only fair that he grills out. hehe

In other news, my daughter is wrapping up her last semester of junior year in college. Its been a really tough semester for her and she is really stressed right now about whether or not she will make the GPA for her major. I sure hope she does because she has worked so hard and I would hate for her to have to make a new choice at this point. She tries so hard but like me, grades don’t come easy for her. :( If you could all say a little prayer for her I’d appreciate it! My son is also wrapping up his junior year in HS. I can not believe that in a month school will be out. My baby will be a senior in HS! Wow – that makes me feel REALLY old. He just took his ACT and is anxious to hear what he got on it.

Since the weather has turned warmer I have been outside taking TONS of pictures. I love spring. it really is my favorite time of year. I will close with a few of my favorites from this spring so far.

My barberry bush – who knew they bloomed? this is the first year for that!

This is just a daisy I bought – just to take pictures of. LOL

Flowers on a tree at my favorite park:

My lilac bush! I had 4 but only 1 lived. :(

A tree in my backyard – I LOVE the flowers it has in the spring!

Flowers at the park – I was playing around with shutter speed. :)

Tulips at the Botanical Gardens:

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend! Talk to you soon!

Well Hello April!

2010-04-01T11:13:00.008-05:00

Well last time I posted it was "almost" March. Now it is April 1. All I can say is WOW. Where is the time going? Before you know it it will be summer break! I personally feel that its been an extremely long winter so I am really ready for spring and pretty flowers, green grass, leaves on the trees, hearing the birds chirping, the lawn mowers going, kids out playing . . . the only thing I don't love about spring is tornados and bugs. LOL Other than that, its my favorite time of year! I just love the fresh newness of everything! March was a busy month. The first week of March my DH and I went on a trip to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. For those that know me well - there were times we weren't sure we would make it to this point, but we did it! It has sometimes been a tough road but I have always felt that when you have kids, you do what you can to make it through the bad times, ya know!?! So we went to St. Petersburg Florida for a week of sun and relaxation. It was kinda chilly when we were there though - so I didn't get to wear the swimsuit (darn! sure hate that! HA). I did get to break out the flip flops a couple of days though which was nice! We stayed right on the beach so every morning I walked out to the beach and just soaked it all in - enjoying every single minute on the sand listening to the waves and the seagulls, looking at shells along the edge of the water. I would love to live near the ocean some day. Its so pretty and calming. Anyway - the week after we got back it was my DS's 17th birthday. Then my DD was home a couple of days for her spring break. After that the rest of the month just sort of flew by. Now here it is April - hard to believe! Right now I am taking a class at Big Picture Scrapbooks - it just started today actually! It is called Picture Spring. It is taught by Tracy Clark and each day we get a prompt to take a picture of something spring-related. Since I am doing the Project 365 this year I thought this would be perfect to help motivate me - at least for 1 month of the year! I think it will be a really fun class and am looking forward to it! Well - I need to get busy. I just thought I'd pop in and say hi and tell you a little of what I have been up to!

Have a great April Fools Day! I will leave you with one of my favorite pictures of the ocean:

Talk to you soon!

Its almost March!

2010-02-28T14:52:00.003-06:00

Where did February go??? It just flew by as usual! I took a photoshop class at my friend's boss's church on Wednesdays of this month and it seems like every time I take a class, the time goes even faster than usual. Now if Spring would hurry up and get here I'd be happy! Its coming though - the birds are chirping, all we need is the green grass and warm weather. ;-) Speaking of warm weather - we leave for Florida soon. We (my husband and I) are going to St. Petersburg for our 25th wedding anniversary which was on Feb 16. Its been in the 50's and 60's there lately though - I sure hope it warms up for when we get there. I had high hopes of taking lots of pictures on the beach - in my FLIP FLOPS! In other news, I got a special package in the mail a little over a week ago - it was from my friend Joscie in Hawaii. It was a prize I had won from her blog and it was such a sweet surprise at that! She hand made an apron, and sent some chocolates! Here's a picture for you to see:

I love the apron and I am also a big Hello Kitty fan so the chocolates were very special too! Isn't Hello Kitty cute in her little grass skirt?! So THANK YOU Joscie for the very sweet gifts!

I know this is a short post but I have tons of things to finish up on this beautiful Sunday - so I will leave you with a recent favorite picture of my nephew's little boy - he is such a cutie and he is into making faces lately!

Talk to you soon!
Steph

Hey there!

2010-01-24T11:02:00.005-06:00

Once again I have been too busy to post anything! Where does the time go??? I hate that it just FLIES by. I hope everyone has been having a great weekend! I have been! Yesterday, I had lunch with 3 wonderful friends. I call them my "lunch gang" because they are friends I use to eat lunch with when I worked at the hospital. Every once in awhile we get together on the weekend and have lunch. This time it was at my friend Shane's house. We ordered pizza, and just chatted and got caught up on each other's lives! Here is a picture of Shane and his little girl Audrey!

He always makes fun of me because I never leave home without my camera but I think he will like this picture! Anyway- after lunch, I responded to a text to my friend Sandy and she asked if I wanted to go to a movie later. So I whipped up supper for Joey (sloppy Joe's - one of his favorites!), and had a quick dinner and then Sandy picked me up for the movie. We swung by Michaels first, looked at scrappy stuff, and then went to see Its Complicated. It was a cute movie. I couldn't decide between that and Leapyear. They were both in the $5 club movies so we got to see it for $5.00. Not a bad deal!

This morning my husband and I went out to breakfast at Perkins. I love their breakfasts. I always get the Classic Eggs Favorite which is a ton of food so it kinda doubles as breakfast and lunch! Before I left for breakfast though I snapped a few pics of Lexi. Like I said - I will most likely have 300 pictures of her by the time the year is over. LOL I am trying to decide between these two for my pic of the day. I am leaning towards the close up but I love the other one too because you can tell she is running with her toy - the close up was afterwards. She had a big mile on her face from playing with me. :)

Now that I look at those pics - the color is all off on them. Looks like I need to edit them a bit more!

Well - thats about all I have to share with you for now! I do want to share a picture of a calendar that i made this week too though. I saw these chipboard albums in the dollar section at Michaels and bought 2 of them so that I would have 6 pages - that way I used both sides to make a 12 month calendar. I think it turned out cute. I used some of My Minds Eye paper from a paper stack I got at Hobby Lobby a while ago. I also used a calendar that I had bought, also for $1 at Michaels, for the actual calendars. I put little heart rhinestones on days that are birthdays or anniversaries. I tried to keep the embellishments pretty flat. I have it sitting on my desk where I work. Here's a few of the pages:

I'll talk to you soon! Have a great day!

2010-01-15T07:03:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to let you all know - ITS FRIDAY.

Have a great day!

Lots of pictures to share!

2010-01-13T18:36:00.001-06:00

Last weekend I went to visit my friend Nikki, and participate in the Nikki Sivils World Premier day at Scrapbook Generations! Nikki is just the sweetest girl and so talented too! She invited me to come and stay in her home for the weekend. Both she and her husband were so sweet and were wonderful hosts - I had the best time while I was there! I arrived on Friday, and that evening we went to the store to set up the tables for the make & takes. Then Nikki took me to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. Everyone said I had to try the chinese because there is no other chinese like Springfield, MO's chinese. LOL We had the General Chicken. It was fried chicken in a sweet sauce - it was pretty tasty! Then that evening, we just sat and talked and watched t.v. and of course, played with her doggies - she has 3, Bella, Savanna and Alfred. I missed my little Lexi, but loved meeting her dogs! Here are a few pics of Alfred, Savanna and Bella!

Saturday was the big day, so Nikki left early, and I went in a bit later. Before I went to the store, I hit up their Hobby Lobby - it was way nicer than ours! I was so impressed with it. I made a couple of more stops and then went to the store. The first thing I saw when I walked in the door was this:

I was in Heaven! :) They had lots of snacks to dip in it - fruit, cookies, pretzels . . . the strawberries were the best! Nikki, Heather and Katrina were hard at work doing make & takes, or "mini classes" as they like to call them at the store. ;)

The lady in green was so funny! She was telling us how her daughter was getting married and she needed the scrapbooking events to help keep her sanity. LOL

Lots of people participated in the mini classes, but one of my favorite was Nikki's little brother. He is just the cutest thing. He resisted making the card at first, but Nikki talked him into it and he did a great job on it!

Here are a few pictures of the display at the store with Nikki's products! People were buying them like crazy!

In other news, I have been working on getting an album together to put my 365 photos for this year in! I already had a pink American Crafts 3 ring binder that I thought I would use, so on my way home from Nikki's house, I stopped at Archivers and bought some photo page protectors. Then on Monday, I worked on getting the album together. I printed out all the pictures so far, and made some journaling cards to document what each photo is about. Here are a few pictures of my album so far:

Well - thats all I have for now! Hope you are all having a wonderful Wednesday!

Talk to you soon!

Change of scenery!

2010-01-08T08:44:00.003-06:00

Hi everyone! I am in Springfield, MO at my sweet friend Nikki's! She graciously invited me into her home, to come and share in the fun of Nikki Sivils Day at Scrapbook Generations! I arrived today, around 4:00 p.m. and went to the store to help her set up a bit for the make and takes going on tomorrow. Then we went to a yummy Chinese restaurant, and came home and got comfy. I took some pictures of her doggie Bella. I warned her that she may well have a dog missing after I go home. LOL Here is my picture of the day for day 8 - but shhhhhh - don't tell Lexi!!!

Day 6 and counting!

2010-01-06T19:50:00.003-06:00

Well - I have gone 6 days in a row taking pictures and I'm pretty proud of myself. LOL I know - its only 6 days, but its a start, right? Here is my picture of the day (surprise. haha I will probably end up with at least 300 of this little girl!)

Unfortunately, she is the only one in the house that would let me take a picture. Also, unfortunately, taking this picture was the highlight of my day. Its really been kind of a crummy day. I got up, went into my office to work, and there was nothing there. I waited most of the day for work to come in. This is becoming quite a trend - and a sign that I really need to look for something else. Then, as if that weren't enough, I hear that we are about to have a huge snowstorm. This makes me mad for a couple of reasons. First, I was planning to visit a friend of mine this weekend, Nikki Sivils, who is having a fun event planned in her hometown of Springfield, MO. Nikki owns her own scrapbook company and they are having an event to show some of her new scrapbook lines coming out at CHA. I was REALLY looking forward to it. But if we get the snow that they say we will, I won't be going anywhere! Another reason I do not want a huge snowstorm is my husband is out of town. So that means I will have to shovel myself out of my home all by myself. Then there is the fact that my dog won't go to the bathroom outside in the snow, unless I clear a small patch of grass for her! So needless to say - I am really really hoping that we don't get the snow that they are saying - which is 6-7 inches! Also, my son is suppose to go back to school tomorrow - the first day back from Christmas break.

Well - enough whining from me! I hope you are all having a wonderful day/evening and hopefully none of my blogger friends will get snowed in!

Talk to you soon!

Its coming along!

2010-01-03T19:13:00.006-06:00

Well - after working ALL day yesterday, I have figured out how to change a few things on my blog. I was planning to have my son help me but he gets so tired of people asking him how to do things (he is our techy guy of the house!), I figured all this out myself, and I have to say I am proud of myself. My sister in law sent me a site that showed how to change some things, and that helped me a bunch. I'm still not done, but at least I don't feel like things are all over the place like they were yesterday afternoon. LOL

Today was a great Sunday. I went out to lunch and to the mall with a good friend of mine, and she surprised me with an ornament that I had my eye on before Christmas. She knew I liked it because we had gone to the mall before Christmas and I showed it to her, as we were shopping in the Hallmark store. I LOVE Hallmark ornaments and this one caught my eye because I love to travel. We have decided to take a trip together this year, so she bought it for me in honor of this! We aren't sure yet when/where we are going, and I am sure it will be on the cheap but I am looking forward to it! Here's the ornament, which also became my picture of the day since I did not take a pic of anything else. I thought it was a great idea to take a pic of it to share with all of you!

Isn't it cute! Its a little travel bag. It has tickets in the front pocket, headphones and water bottle on the side pockets, and a Jetstrean magazine in the back pocket!

Well - hope you all are having a great Sunday!

Talk to you soon!

Testing testing . . .

2010-01-02T17:04:00.001-06:00

Testing new siggy.

Just an FYI

2010-01-02T11:15:00.001-06:00

I am attempting to change some things on my blog regarding the layout to make it look better when I add photos to it. Please bear with me as I figure all this out - I don't know much about HTML so this is all new to me. It will look kinda messed up until I get it all figured out. But . . . I am excited about this - new year, new look to my blog!
Talk to you soon!
Steph

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T20:15:00.002-06:00

Welcome to 2010! I started out the day getting up early to work. :( Then, I waited all day for work to come in. I waited. And waited. And waited. It never did come in by the way. I did 4 reports the whole day. It was pretty frustrating to say the least - especially since its a short pay period anyway! But in between waiting around by my computer, I decided to take some of my Christmas stuff down so I don't have to do it all over the weekend. I took the tree down and packed it back into its box, and put the ornaments in the ornament box, then I decided I had clearly overworked myself so I quit for the day. LOL All evening I have been sitting by a roaring fire on my new laptop, just enjoying the evening on the first day of the year. Yesterday my son backed up what was on my old laptop. I was so happy about this. What he did for me is what I had to spend $100 for at BB to do the last time my laptop died. Plus BB would only download a certain amount of my info, and if it went over their limit, I had to pay more. I didn't want to pay more, so I told them to save what was on my desktop. I figured that was an easy thing to do since most of the things I save, I put on my desktop. Well - apparently that was not the right thing to do, as when I got my DVD from them there was all kinds of crap on it that I didn't want, and all the things I did want were not there. I was not a happy camper. So when my son did it for FREE, and managed to get all the things I actually wanted backed up, I was thrilled! It pays to have a computer techy person in the household!

In other news, I have decided to try to do Project 365 this year. This means I will take a picture every day of this year. I already take pictures ALMOST every day of the year, but I usually miss a few days here and there. So this year I am going to try to do one every single day. Who knows if I will accomplish this, but I know one thing for sure, I would at least like to keep a collection of my favorites this year and print them out and put in an album. I wish I had done this last year as well.

Well - thats about all I have for you right now! i hope you all had a great day on 01/01/10!
Talk to you soon!
Steph

Oh happy day!

2009-12-29T16:42:00.003-06:00

I think I mentioned this before - but last Tuesday, right after my lovely ENT appointment, I came home to find my laptop completely dead. Well - I have tried to get along without it but I just couldnt do it! So today I went out laptop shopping. I tried to keep the price down and really did shop around. I checked several places and ultimately decided on this one:

Its a Toshiba, and was on sale at Office Depot. I have been playing around with it all afternoon and so far I love it! My son has been busy loading new things on it for me, so I can be back in business ASAP. Gotta love days off like this! Hope you are all having a wonderful day! Talk to you soon!
Steph

Just wanted to post a seriously cute picture!

2009-12-27T16:40:00.005-06:00

This picture really makes me smile! :) Have a great day!

Merry Christmas to all!

2009-12-23T20:38:00.007-06:00

Happy Holidays! I hope everyone is having a great Christmas! I certainly can't complain too much. I got my 85 1.8 lens and am so happy with it so far! Heres a couple of my little dog on Christmas morning:

She was checking out her Bass Pro Shop duck in her stocking in the picture on the right. hehe The one on the left, she is modeling her Target dollar spot holiday accessory! I told her to sit and stay - and she actually did it while I took her picture. That almost never happens! ha This week has not been the best for me, but still its been a great Christmas. On Tuesday, I went to an ENT to have a couple of things checked out. I have been having nosebleeds a LOT on only one side of my nose, so I knew it would probably need cauterized. I just didn't know he was going to do it right then at THAT appointment. Surprise. LOL First, he took this flexible scope thing and put it in both my nostrils and down to my vocal chords to look around. Though it was not painful, it was a bit uncomfortable. He wore a light on his head like I got my son for Boy Scouts when he went into a cave. haha Then he took this thing that looked like a giant match, and put it up my nose to cauterize it. Ever since then my nose has been burning like crazy. Then my teeth on that side started to hurt. The tooth problem has gotten worse as the days go by, so yesterday they put me on an antibiotic. So in between squirting saline, Afrin and Bacitracin up my nose, I have to remember to take an antibiotic 4 times a day, along with my Tylenol. I know this is only a minor thing and I surely have so much to be thankful for, but I was just not prepared for this the week of Christmas! Plus, to top that off, I came home from my ENT appointment to find my laptop completely dead. It has been acting funny lately but I didn't think it was just going to quit working. I have been so sad about this - I absolutely loved my laptop. I'm not sure yet if I lost all my data - my son, who is my computer guru, thinks its the motherboard. If thats the case, the computer is pretty much gone, but he says he can get my stuff off of it for me if I buy some sort of hard drive case. So tomorrow I'm off to Computer Deli to pick up a case and try to salvage what I can from it. Still, its so sad. I loved the portability of that laptop. If I had known it would die right before Christmas I would have asked for a new one instead of my camera lens. LOL Well - I need to get off here for now - we are going to my SIL's house for Christmas dinner, so I really need to get a few things done around here. I am seriously enjoying my Christmas day off today - I worked last year on this day, so having the day off is special treat!!! Have a WONDERFUL HOLIDAY! Talk to you soon!
Steph

Christmas is coming . . . ready or not!

2009-12-05T20:53:00.003-06:00

And let me tell you - I am NOT sure if I will be ready on time! I went shopping today to get a few things - mostly gift certificates - the easy stuff! I of course had to stop by Starbucks and get a Peppermint Mocha on the way. I LOVE those things ! It was even better than I remember from last year. ; ) I need to find something to get my husband. He is the hardest person to buy for - ever. He doesn't need a thing. I need to think of something really good though because he is letting me get an 85 mm lens that I wanted! So if you have any wonderful gift ideas - let me know - I am open to suggestions! As I was out shopping I picked up a gingerbread house kit. Once I get it decorated I will post a picture. I am excited to decorate it. Well - this is a short and sweet post but I am totally exhausted. Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!!!

Steph

November already!!!

2009-11-10T15:47:00.005-06:00

Wow- I just can not believe how fast this year is going! In just a few short weeks I will be putting up my Christmas decorations! Unbelievable!!! Maybe its because I wish the week away so that the weekend will come faster!?! A week from Friday a friend and I are going Christmas shopping in Aurora. I can't wait. I love the outlet mall there. I am really hoping to get a bunch of my shopping done then. Each year I drag it out more and more. I just have such a hard time figuring out what to get everyone! (did you hear that Dottie??? I need a list for your family within the week. LOL) Speaking of the holiday season, I discovered a link a while ago to a photographer that is starting something where photographers all over the world are going to take peoples pictures on December 12 - people who can not afford to have portraits taken. The photographers will be doing this for free. Here is a link: Help-Portrait.com. If you have a minute - watch the video on the site. It literally brought tears to my eyes. So cool. Having really gotten into photography and realizing how much a picture can give a person joy, I think this is such a wonderful idea. If I had more experience I would certainly do it. I would love to help someone in my area but last I checked there were only 2 people even signed up for here. Thats sad, really. This reminds me of the NILMDTS. This stands for Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep. It is an organization where volunteers go to hospitals and take pictures of babies who won't get to come home. If I thought I could do this emotionally I would love to do it. I am just not sure I could do it without falling apart. I think it is a wonderful thing though for them to go and take pictures of those little babies - it would be the only professional photo that the parents would have. Such a wonderful thing to do.

Anyway - hope everyone is having a great month so far! I need to get going and get some things done before the day is over. Since I always do - here are a few pictures to share with you.

Here are a few of Lexi:

And I went to the zoo here in town - the only thing worth seeing were the monkeys. LOL Here is one who thought he was Blane Wilson, doing his gymnastics routine LOL:

Here he is up close:

Talk to you soon!
Steph

Fall is officially here!

2009-10-19T21:00:00.005-05:00

Yep - its official. Fall colors have finally arrived! I am loving taking pictures of all the pretty color around me! The two pictures above are two of my favorites. The one below was one where I was practicing getting pretty sunflare and I accidentally got a little girl pulling her wagon. LOL I didn't even know she was in the picture until I looked at it when I got home. Her mom was taking pictures of her too. She probably wondered why I was taking pictures of her little girl!!!

The weather here has been so nice! Its been in the 70's. I am loving that for mid October! I was off today so I ran a ton of errands. I returned a pair of jeans to Kohls, went grocery shopping, mailed one of my favorite lenses back to Tamron to be repaired :( picked up a prescription for my son and got it filled, and did a bunch of laundry. After all that I am pooped! My DH is in Las Vegas today. He had to go for work. I usually wish I was going where he does when he goes out of town but to be honest - Las Vegas is one place I really have no desire to go. I don't usually drink, and I hate to gamble so I always think whats the point of going there. LOL Like thats all you do in Vegas. ha I am sure its a very pretty place to take pictures though so I probably would enjoy that aspect of it! Well - I know this is short and sweet but I need to go get the clothes out of the dryer and get some other stuff done before bed. Hope everyone is having a great week! Talk to you soon!
Steph

Mom's weekend . . .

2009-09-12T09:43:00.005-05:00

Its Mom's weekend at my daughter's college. I came last night and spent the night in a dorm. haha No, not my daughter's dorm, its a dorm that they only use for occasions such as this. Here is a picture of my room.

This morning I took a shower in the community shower. A brave girl I am today. :) I got up really early because they always have a balloon festival the same weekend as Mom's weekend, and I wanted to get some pictures of some of the balloons. It was pretty cool - I watched them set up and actually take off. Tonight they will return and have a "balloon glow" when it gets dark. I am hoping to get more pictures then. As for what we are doing today - I'm really not sure though since its with my daughter, I am pretty sure it will involve me spending money on her. LOL She is, after all, a starving college student. Now I wait until she actually drags herself out of bed so we can get the day started! Heres some pictures for you for now . . . I am sure more will be coming later!

The moon this morning . . . I told you I got up early!

Then came the sunrise:

Watching them get ready to go:

Once they were in the air:

And when I got back to the dorm, I took these, just because! :

Thats it for now! Have a great Saturday!
Steph

Happy Labor day!

2009-09-07T07:49:00.008-05:00

OK - I am not so happy about this day because I am working today. :( But so far there has been little work for me to do so I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will get to take some time off today and enjoy it like all the normal people who get holidays off! I went outside to get my paper this morning, and noticed rain drops on the tree in front of my house. I know you are thinking "and your point is?" since it has rained the past 2 days here. haha BUT I have been wanting to get some pictures of rain drops with my macro filters that I bought. Some people over on the 2 peas site posted some raindrop pics a while ago and they were so cool. So, I ran inside and grabbed my camera and took some pictures before the drops were all gone! When I first started taking them I noticed that my neighbors house was in them, but upside down! I thought that was so cool. Then I had a lightbulb moment (I do think a little bit slow sometimes!) and realized if I turned around and took them from the OTHER side I would get my own house in them. Pretty clever huh? (notice sarcasm there?). So - here is my raindrop pic with my house in every single drop:

I just love seeing what my camera wil come up with next. haha

So I hope everyone has a great day! As of right now the sun is actually shining, so I hope I can enjoy at least part of it!!!

Talk to you soon!
Steph

Happy Tuesday!

2009-08-25T17:08:00.005-05:00

This has been a darn good day!!! Nothing special happened, but I was off work, the sun was shining - and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I went to run errands this afternoon and wanted to share a few pictures with you. I went to my favorite park again - I am becoming a regular there with my camera in hand. : ) I wish we had more scenic places to go but unfortunately the park is IT in this town. LOL Heres some pics - the flowers there were beautiful today - I just love the peacefulness of the outdoors. Maybe I need to move into the country and build a huge deck to sit outside and enjoy it more! Anyway - hope you all had a great day! My husband and I are off to Steak & Shake in a bit for date night. I'm trying really hard to eat better and exercise more - but there are some things I just can't give up - and a steakburger is one of them!!!
Talk to you soon!
Steph

Hey all!

2009-08-23T20:08:00.004-05:00

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine was pretty good. Friday night a good friend of mine and I went to the fair. I always go just to eat the food. LOL I had a ribeye sandwich and mini doughnuts! I took pictures of this year's butter cow - every year someone sculpts a cow out of butter. This year its suppose to be Abe Lincoln as a young boy reading, and then of course, the cow. Its one of those things at the fair that we always have to look at even though usually its the same as last year. LOL

Saturday I didn't do much of anything. I had planned on scrapbooking but for some reason that didn't happen. :( It was nice though to be able to do absolutely nothing if I wanted to!

Today, we took some things to my daughter for her dorm. She starts school tomorrow. We ran to Wal Mart to get her an extension cord for her microwave and fridge and guess what? They were completely sold out of extension cords. Apparently every other student at the college needed one too. haha So I guess I will be mailing her one this week! Once we got home I was so tired and didn't feel much like making dinner so I just made pancakes. Its kind of nice having breakfast for dinner sometimes! Right after dinner, I took my dog out for her evening duties. She is notorious for not getting along with other dogs. She is wonderful with people but for some reason there are very few dogs she actually likes. I was talking to a couple of my neighbors, not really paying attention to Lexi brecause all 3 of the dogs (my two neighbors' dogs and Lexi) were actually getting along for a change - then all of a sudden I hear a loud commotoin and Lexi and the dog across the street are fighting! I tried to snatch her up and next thing I know her leash is around my neighbor Kim about 3 times, and the dogs are still fighting. She took her dog, Tippy's leash off of her to set her free, and then we both unwound Kim from the leash and checked out dogs. What a mess it was! Once we came inside, Lexi was breathing so hard - I think it actually scared her. This has happened twice with her and this dog. Usually I am so busy yapping with the neighbors that I don't see what happens until they are in the fight! I know one thing - I really should have taken her to preschool so she would have learned how to play with others because apparently thats one thing she did not learn as a puppy!!!

Well, its almost my bedtime, so I'll leave you with some pictures, because as you all know, I love taking them! Have a great week and I'll talk to you soon!
Steph

Vacation and back to school!

2009-08-17T20:01:00.008-05:00

Well we survived the vacation as a family! We normally are not good travelers together. The first couple of days were kind of touch and go, and on the 2nd day, my daughter and I both had a tearful moment (about two separate things), but then after that things got much better and it was actually enjoyable! My son complained the WHOLE week - he is building his own computer this summer, and had just purchased his last piece of the computer - the hard drive - and couldn't wait to get home and put it in and see how it all ran. I can't blame him - he has my patience after all! But he is the type of kid that says "how much longer" repeatedly. He has always been this way and since he is 16 I doubt he is going to outgrow it anytime soon. LOL He did survive the trip but I think he would have much rather stayed home! My daughter and her boyfriend seemed to enjoy things once he got there (he came on the 3rd day of our vacation, because he visited one of his friends in Fort Knox right before that). We went to the Opry Mills outlet mall, Music Hall of Fame, the aquarium in Chattanooga, Ruby Falls, and the Smoky Mountains. There so much more that I wanted to do but there was simply not enough time. I really wanted to go to Rock City, but it was way too hot on the day that we were going to do it, so we opted for Ruby Falls instead. I hiked for the very first time in my life and realized just how out of shape I really am. I went on a 1.4 mile (each way) hike to Laurel Falls, and going there was totally uphill. It was described as the easiest hike in the mountains and I was sucking air just to get up to it. I honestly didn't think I would make it. Going down was a breeze though! My daughter and her boyfriend decided to climb to the top of the falls, and just as her boyfriend was about to tell her to be careful because of the slippery ledge, she slipped, and almost fell down the falls. Somehow he snatched her up by the shoulder, scraping her knee and ripping her shirt, and sat her down on the rocks. I have no idea how he did this without them both falling. I didn't really have any time to panic - it all happened so fast! (I found out later that it is a 60 ft drop!). After that fiasco, they (my family) decided to go on another hike, of which I told them I would wait for them at the car. haha I figured one hike was enough for me - I didn't want to risk a heart attack. It was sad though - I really need to get in better shape!!! There are a few pics at the bottom of this post! All in all I did enjoy myself but I hated to come home and go back to work today!!! Tomorrow, summer is officially over for my son. He has his first day of his junior year of high school. Then on Thursday night, my daughter is leaving and moving into her dorm on Friday. It will seem strange with her gone. All summer we have had a trail of her friends coming and going at the house - I will miss that! There something about a group of girls laughing and talking - its so fun to listen to. I sure hate to see summer end. I do like fall, but I absolutely HATE winter. Some day I hope to move someplace warm in the winter! Well, I don't have much more to share, so I will leave you with my vacation pics. Hope you are all having a great day!
Talk to you soon!
Steph

A favorite aquarium picture (the fish just looked right at me as if he were posing!):

Laurel Falls at the Smoky Mountains (where my daughter decided to "fall" too!):

A stream at Abrams Falls (this is one of my favorite pictures!):

My little travel dog with the wind in her fur:

My daughter and I at the I-Max theater at the aquarium (my son took it and had the focus point on my daughter. She always makes this face in pictures for me. LOL):

Ruby Falls (the falls inside the cave):

Hi

2009-07-28T09:24:00.002-05:00

Hope everyone is doing great on this fine Tuesday morning! I have a busy day ahead of me today - I have an eye appointment at 10:30, and picking out new glasses after that. I HATE wearing glasses - but then if I don't wear them, I can't see, and contacts are out of the question for me, so there really is no choice for me. :( I have had my current ones for a little over 2 years, and they have broken twice so far - had to have them soldered back together at a jewelry store. LOL Hopefully whatever I get next will be more sturdier! After that, I am going to Hobby Lobby to pick up my new Slice cart. that I bought last week when it was on sale. They were out of them so I had to get a raincheck. Its the Spring cart. I love the font on that cartridge - it kind of reminds me of Fling font - so pretty. Then, I have some other travel arrangements to make. Our vacation is coming up fast - and I could not be happier about that!!! This weekend my friend Connie is coming to see me too, so I need to do a bit of cleaning around the house. Before you know it - it will be bedtime. Days off fly by sooooo quickly! :( Today is also my daughter's last day of summer classes. She has her statistics final today - keep your fingers crossed that it goes well! She finished her med. terminology class last week. Then in 2 weeks or so it will be time to move her back into her dorm at WIU. Wow - this summer went way too fast for me.

Well - sorry for the boring update on my life - but it is what it is! LOL Maybe I will have more fun things to discuss next time! Have a great day!

Steph

Yep - I'm still here!

2009-07-11T11:26:00.004-05:00

Once again - I have neglected my blog big time! I have been so busy taking online classes, figuring out Facebook, and working that there seems to be no time for anything else! But I am back - hopefully posting a bit more than I have the last month. (which was NOT ONE TIME). LOL We are planning our vacation. We have decided on Tennessee. I am pretty sure the whole fam is going - and I think my daughter's new boyfriend might be going as well - not quite sure about that though. My son is already grumbling - "why are we going to Tennessee? Theres nothing to do there!" I told him he WILL have fun. ha ha So far we are thinking Nashville, Chattanooga and Smoky Mountains. Thats a lot to cram into a week but we are going to try to do it. Not sure whats on the agenda yet, but for some strange reason I want to do white water rafting. Now most of you probably know, I can not swim (I CAN float though! hehe). But it always looks so fun, and the ones I have been checking out have guides on the raft who are CPR certified, and we will be wearing life jackets so if I can get the rest of the family talked into it and the weather cooperates, I think we will do it. I am not a country music fan, so Nashville doesn't really excite me but I still think it will be fun. I have needed a vacation so bad, so at this point I would go just about anywhere. We are going in about a month - so I really need to get plans made ASAP!

Other things going on over the last month - lets see . . . well, I finished Candice Stringham's Portrait class, and right after that signed up for Katrina Kennedy's Through the Lens class. That was a bit too soon after Candice's though - so unfortunately I didn't participate much in Katrina's. She is so friendly and helpful though - hopefully she will offer more classes in the future. I think she is a great teacher. Then, this last week I started Jessica Sprague's newest class - I don't remember the name of it but it is a photo editing course - we have been putting frames, masks, textures, etc. on photos - it was free if you signed up during her birthday week - can't beat that! It really is a fun class and I am learning some cute photo techniques!
Here's an example of masking:

See how the edges are scruffy? Jessica gave us the mask to download for free, and we use it with our own photo to create the edges. So cool! Speaking of cool - how do you like those Pepsi bottles? ha ha I saw them at Wal Mart yesterday and could not resist buying them. They had blue too but they were $1.50 a piece and I was feeling cheap so I only bought the three. I just love them though - I wish they sold them like that all the time!

Well - thats all for now. I will talk to you soon! (I promise!).
Have a great Saturday!
Steph

Who knew . . .

2009-06-11T17:16:00.003-05:00

that a camera could be soooooo confusing! So I am taking another photography class. This one is called Captured Through the Lens through the Get It Scrapped site. Its the first week of class, and the teacher, (who by the way is so darn friendly you can't help but love her right off the bat!) explains in our first lesson about "back button focus". I had no idea what this meant so all this week I have been messing around with my camera trying to figure it all out. There is an AE-L/AF-L button on the back of the camera and I knew this was what she was talking about but had no idea how to adjust it to fit my needs. So this afternoon, after looking at several web sites, my manual, and a book that I purchased last night, I figured out a few things but still am pretty confused! Its actually giving me a headache trying to figure it out. But now the curiosity has gotten to me and I just HAVE to know how it all works. LOL I played around with the settings and thought I had it set to lock the exposure (that is what I wanted to lock, since I am constantly metering, I figured this would help me the most). I thought I had it set but then the exposure would not "hold" for very long. I then found some other settings that may possibly set the amount of time it holds it for. Oh brother. Why does this have to be so darn confusing! Thats what I get for buying a camera with a zillion different settings. LOL

As for other news going on around here - Heather is home from school, but is now taking 2 classes at the community college, Statistics and Medical Terminology. I can certainly help her with the Med. Term but NOT the statistics! Its been crazy this week - she has class 4 days a week and is off on Friday's. She went to WIU to stay the night there tonight and is headed home for a doctors appt. tomorrow morning. Crazy girl. I would have just stayed home, but thats just me. hehe As for my son, he is still looking for a part time job and is quite discouraged that he can't find one. He has applied at several places with not even an interview (well - I take that back - he did have ONE but they said they weren't even hiring - why did they have to get his hopes up then???). He wants a job so bad because he wants to build his own computer and has no money to buy the parts for it. His lawn mowing money gets spent as soon as his dad gives it to him. LOL Not much else is going on here. Our neighborhood is having their garage sale this weekend. We have a whole basement full of junk that we should sell, but my husband is taking a class this summer as well and has class all this weekend so he won't be able to help with the sale, and my daughter said she would but that is probably not going to happen, as it will interfere with her beauty sleep, so I doubt that I will be having my sale. I really wanted to but I hate doing it alone - its just too much work, so once again the basement will be full of junk for a while more. :( In other news, I have not totally given up the idea of going on a trip, but I am thinking its most likely NOT going to happen. First, I really can't afford to take a week off work since I don't have vacation time, and second, no one wants to go where I do, and finding a time is almost impossible. :( :( :( I just need to get away SOOOOO bad. I am not talking about a weekend away - I need at least a week to feel like I have had a vacation. It really sucks not having any benefits at my job!

OK - I am officially done whining for the day! Sorry for such a depressing post - just the kind of mood I am in, I guess! Once I start complaining, I can go on for hours. LOL Anyway - hope you are all having a wonderful week and have great plans for the weekend! (and are all in a much better mood than I am! hehe)
Talk to you soon!
Steph

p.s. I am going to leave you with a picture I took last weekend. It puts a smile on my face everytime I look at it so I posted it to try to perk my mood up. It is of my daughter and a friend of hers from college that came to spend the weekend with us last weekend. Look at Lexi in the corner of the pic - she just HAD to get in the picture with the girls. It just cracks me up!

Wow - its been a while!

2009-06-05T21:50:00.003-05:00

I haven't posted in so long! I have been taking Candice Stringham's portrait class over at Jessica Sprague.com and that has kept me pretty busy lately! We had to post 3 pics for a final portfolio. I had a hard time getting my model to pose for me - she is so darn busy, but I finally got her to do it for me- about 20 minutes before it got dark out no less! Heres my portfolio:

I took them all at Washington Park here in town. I haven't found too many fun places to take pics here but I usually find nice backgrounds at this park. I made her walk past a bunch of ducks to get to the bench where she is sitting - she was not happy about that. She said they were hissing at her when she walked by. LOL My class is now officially over, and I am always so sad when they end! I always really enjoy the classes - especially the message board. There are so many nice people in her classes and they are all so helpful.

This is going to be a busy weekend. My daughter (AKA my model - LOL) turns 20 on Sunday! A friend of hers from college is coming to stay with us for the weekend. She lives in Chicago and is taking the train here. Today her boyfriend, Bruce, picked her up early and took her to Six-Flags to celebrate. They had a great time. They came home and went swimming and now are on their way to pick up Miranda from the train station. Its going to be a noisy weekend at our house! I don't mind though - its so fun when she whe has friends over. Never a dull moment!

Well - its getting late and I need to get one more load of laundry put away before going to bed. Hope you all have a great weekend!
Steph

Playing with camera!

2009-05-15T19:25:00.004-05:00

Heres some pics I have taken lately . . . more of Lexi, of course! And the park is where I grew up - its a crappy little town but I always loved the park! LOL

Vacation woes.

2009-05-15T17:08:00.002-05:00

Well - after all the discussion about planning a family trip, my DH says he can not go on a vacation until fall - and maybe not even then. :( They are putting in a new computer system at his job and he is on the committee so he can't miss work while they are doing all of this. Can you believe it? It was so hard to try to find a time when we could all go . . . with school, and everything else. My DD is taking 2 classes this summer at the community college and they start early June and go through July, then she goes back to school mid August. My DS starts school mid August as well . . . and they never seem to have any vacations at the same time with both schools - except at Christmas. So finding a time was going to be tricky but still - I am so bummed - I feel like I NEED a vacation so badly and was sooooo looking forward to going somewhere just to relax and, of course, take pics with my new camera of DIFFERENT surroundings. LOL I told him maybe I will just go on vacation all by myself. Won't that be fun? haha

So what is everyone up to this weekend? It is raining here today - AGAIN. Plus there are tornado warnings out all over the place right now. I am really hoping it doesn't hit anywhere near here! I am also really hoping it clears up for the weekend! Tomorrow I am going to meet my nephews new baby, Aaden! He was born March 23 and we have not met him yet. He lives in St. Louis. They are bringing him here to meet everyone and I can't wait! I love babies! Other than that, not much else is going on. I am suppose to take some head shots this weekend for my class - but I still have to find a "model". I don't think the dog would count for this one. LOL

Well - I am off to find something fun to do on this Friday night! Talk to everyone soon!
Steph

I look official now.

2009-05-12T15:56:00.002-05:00

I got my 5 in 1 reflector today so, as my daughter said, I'm official now. LOL I actually LOOK like a photographer. Candice said they would be very helpful in our class and I wished I had had it when I took those pictures of Stephen last month - so now I have one. And let me tell you - that sucker was a bit hard to fold up. Its 42" round, and it folds up like those pool floats that never did get folded back up once we took them out of the package. haha
I followed this video here to actually get it back in the bag: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjlsP9KDjcs&NR=1
I also watched this video, just for fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVJi-wApa2Q

The videos were shared by one of my classmates in my photog. class - so many helpful people in these classes! Of course, when my son came home from school, he took it and folded it up in 2 seconds flat. Show off. LOL

So . . . what is everyone up to today? It is a gorgeous day here in Illinois - though its a bit windy and a little chilly, at least its SUNNY. I can't complain about that! I started my day off sitting for 2 hours in the Jeep repair center - my back window went down yesterday and I couldn't get it back up. Plus my front power outlet only works intermittently. It always conveniently stops working either a) when my cell phone needs charged, or b) when I need to plug in my GPS. Well - guess what? It worked today so they didn't do anything to it. Made me so mad!!!
After that I went to Barnes & Noble to get a Digital Field Guide for my camera. I had one for my last one and it really helped me learn how to use it better so I am hoping this one will help, as I surely need all the help I can get!

Hope everyone is having a fabulous Tuesday! Talk to you soon!
Steph

A girl named Kim - LOL

2009-05-10T17:37:00.002-05:00

I thought I would post one more time today to explain why I appear to be two different people. LOL You see, when I was born, a month premature, I weighed 3 lb 10 oz. My mom named me Stephanie Kim (she picked Kim because my aunt - her sister - had a baby named Kim that died). Well - my grandma (my dad's mom) - who was never the warm fuzzy type, and definitely said what she thought and when she thought it, told my mom that Stephanie was much too big of a name for such a little baby - and she refused to call me Stephanie. Apparently what she said went, because I have been called Kim my whole life by my entire family. In fact I use to be called Kim by all my friends. That is, until I turned 12. Thats when we moved to Springfield, and I decided I wanted to be called Stephanie because it seemed more grown up to me. LOL Plus since I didn't know anyone when I moved, it was the perfect chance to change my name, so to speak. From that day forward, all of my friends have called me Stephanie - but my family still calls me Kim. It can be quite confusing if you don't know the story - so there it is - the story of a girl named Kim.

Have a great day!

Steph - aka Kim

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T07:00:00.001-05:00

I hope everyone has a fabulous Mother's Day! My daughter got me two cards - they are both funny and she wrote a sweet note in them for me - I loved them! She couldn't decide between the two so she got them both. She gave them to me on Friday when she brought home a car load of things from college - her last week is this week, so she figured she better start making trips to get all of it home. Plus I think she may have wanted me to meet Bruce her new boyfriend. ; ) As for my son, he decided he was going to be very nice to me today. He informed me of this yesterday. I highly appreciate that coming from a teenager. haha This morning we are going out to breakfast - which I always love to do! After breakfast we are off to WIU to pick up more things from Heather's dorm room. What a fun way to spend the day! haha

Well - I'm out of here for now - just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Mother's Day today! Also, if you have a mom be sure to wish her a very happy mothers day too. I wish my own mom was here to say it to!

Play day!

2009-05-09T11:09:00.006-05:00

Today I am off to play with my new camera! I got it yesterday and could hardly wait to get off work and take pics with it! But once I started playing with it I realized very quickly that I didn't know how to work it. LOL I think I am going to need a LOT of practice! Its got a lot more features than my D40 so this is going to take a while! It has a lot more focal points so I really don't even know how to f ocus properly yet. Thats not good! haha So today I am off to try to figure out some things about it. Here are a couple of pics I took with it though:

It also has some video capability so here is a quick video I did just to play around with it:

Well - hope you are all having a great Saturday!
Steph

PS - I had the Nikon Digitutor website up on my computer when I was doing this short video - thats what you hear at the end of the video. : )

The bad, the good and the VERY good!

2009-05-07T14:49:00.004-05:00

What a day this has been so far! I woke up, intending to get some work done but right off the bat the internet quit working. So that put an end to my getting anything done! Then, I had to drive to Schuyler County courthouse to get supervision on a speeding ticket that I got when I took Heather to the neurosurgeon a month ago. :( For a little courthouse, it sure was packed with traffic offenders. LOL I had no idea how much more it was to get supervision but when I found out I couldn't believe it - $120 extra, on top of the cost of the ticket! Oh well - in just 60 days I will have a clean record - I guess its all worth it! After my fun court appearance, I came home and found out the internet was now working. By this time, I am completely NOT in the mood to do anything though. LOL (after all - I just spent 3 hours driving today!) So . . . I got on Amazon and looked around and looked up the price for the Nikon D90 that I have been wanting for a while. Last night I got my DH talked into letting me get it - now I am paying most of this myself, so I don't know why I needed his "approval" but I just felt it would be better to get it ahead of time, KWIM? SO . . . I was planning on getting it at Best Buy because that is the only store that has it in town. But after looking at Amazon and seeing that it was $400 less, my choice was made - so after just a few clicks, and next day shipping, I purchased it!!!!! I am way beyond excited - this camera is sooo sweet! The thing that makes me nervous is I didn't get an extended warranty on it. I didn't see that as an option through Amazon - but I figured for the price I couldn't pass it up, so hopefully it will last a really long time! My D40 has been a great camera and I haven't had any problems with it so far so keep your fingers crossed . . . then after placing my order I started browsing some online photography sites. I am taking Candice Stringham's Portraiture class that started on Monday. We are going to start shooting next week, I think, so I sure hope my D90 comes tomorrow like its suppose to! Can you tell how excited I am? I have wanted this camera since the day it was announced! Anyway- back to my class . . . this week we are to find out what our "style" is. Well - I have been looking at tons of mags and tons of websites and I have came to the conclusion that my style is "fun, outdoorsy, casual" all rolled into one! I also love pics of babies and here is a site that a classmate shared that has the most ADORABLE baby pictures: http://www.ellabellaphotos.com/blog/
I just love her photos!!!

Anyway - just had to share my fun day with you all! I need to get off here for now - in a while my DS will be home and I have to help him take pics of architecture for his photog. class at school. Lets just say he doesn't share my love of taking pictures. LOL

Have a great day!
Steph

So sick of this:

2009-05-01T15:41:00.002-05:00

This is my view from my scraproom/office. I normally love looking out the window - it looks out onto our pool (which is not open yet, and is FULL of water from all the rain/snow this winter/spring!!!). Lately, however, it has RAINED EVERY DAY. I checked our forecast for the area yesterday, and there is rain in the entire 10 day forecast - every single day. My sump pump is seriously running continuously and I am afraid it will quit altogether because its just plain tired of sucking rain out of my basement! UGGGH.

Sorry - I had to get that out of my system! So what is everyone up to this weekend? No real plans for me - just relaxing. Maybe I will shop for a nice pretty UMBRELLA to use for the next 10 DAYS. Ooops - I said I was done with that subject, didn't I? LOL Sorry - heard the sump pump go off and totally lost my train of thought! hehe I am very glad its Friday and I have the weekend to have some fun. I really should dig out all my spring clothes. Yes I know its late in the game for that - but I had a few short sleeved things hanging with my winter stuff and that has been what I wear every day until I can muster up the energy to drag out all the other stuff. It shouldn't be too hard because I really don't have that many things to wear. I really need to go clothes shopping but I hate spending the money! Speaking of money - remember when I posted about possible places to go on vacation? Well - I ALMOST had my DH talked into Orlando - I say ALMOST because he later told me he can't take a whole week off work. He does this all the time - he says things and gets my hopes up and then changes his mind. I want to strangle him when he does this! Anyway - I have been trying to think of someplace that we would all enjoy but the real question is - is there a time that we can all go together? The more I think about that last question - the more depressed I get - I highly doubt we can all go at the same time what with school, jobs, etc. Also, I had been saving up for a little mini trip all to myself. I had been thinking about some type of scrap convention, or retreat - something I have never done before. I also pondered the idea of going to a photography workshop somewhere fun. I am really getting into taking pics and would love to learn so much more about how to take GOOD pics. Then when I started thinking about photography, I started thinking that maybe I'd like to save for a new camera. Don't get me wrong - I love my camera, but its an entry level DSLR, and there are some features I wish it had. Theres the new Nikon D90 that has been calling my name for quite a while and I almost have enough saved up for it. So . . . do I take a much needed fun trip, or do I buy a camera that I have had my eye on for quite a while??? What would you do?

OK - well I am going to stop talking now. Sorry for all the rambling! I guess thats what happens when you work at home all by yourself with no one to talk to except a little dog! LOL
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Talk to you soon! (and send some sunshine my way if you can!!!)

Steph

New class coming up!

2009-04-28T11:09:00.002-05:00

I signed up last night for the new Candice Stringham class that begins next Monday! Yay! I am so excited about it - heres the details - Candice's Portrait Class - in case you want to take the next one she offers! She is a fabulous instructor in photography. I didn't understand a thing about my camera until taking her class! Plus you really get a lot of tips and tricks along the way. Now all I need to do is find some willing subjects to have their pics taken. hehe Maybe my daughter will let me take some of her and her friends!

What is everyone up to today? I have to do a conference call for work in an hour. :( Not what I want to do on my day off but its mandatory so whats a girl to do? Other than that- not much going on. I am going to hit the stores in a while to try to find an adapter for my keyboard, so I can use it on my laptop. My work computer is running a bit funny so they loaded everything on my laptop in case it quits working - but I can NOT work on a laptop all day - I need my comfy keyboard that I am so use to typing on.

Before I go I will share a picture that was taken last weekend at my crop - this is my friend Sandy. She and I have been friends since we were sophomores in H.S. - wow, that was a LONG time ago! I won't tell you how many years but I will give you a hint - we are both in our mid 40's so you do the math! LOL She is a WONDERFUL friend! We have the best time together just talking. We have been through a lot together. This past weekend we were both talking about how we both want to travel and our husbands don't, so maybe we can be traveling old ladies together some day!

Well- guess I'll go grab some lunch and wait for my dreaded call. Hope you are all having a great Tuesday!

Talk to you soon!
Steph

A wonderful but exhausting Saturday!

2009-04-25T17:24:00.002-05:00

What a great Saturday! Its been sunny, warm and windy. Just a really beautiful day. I sat outside on my swing for a while this afternoon and just soaked up the wonderful weather! I love spring - such a beautiful time of year! I have been SOOOO tired today - I went to my first crop yesterday/last night- I scrapped for 12 hours straight and had a lot of fun. My friend, Sandy, invited me to go and I am glad she did - I finished a 8 x 8 recipe book that I had been wanting to do. So far there are only 10 recipes in it, but they are ones that I am always using. Most of them are from my MIL who was a wonderful cook. They are probably old italian recipes handed down from her mother. (Of course, I can't cook nearly as well as she did!) I scrapped until 3:00 this morning and got home around 3:30! Sam felt it necessary to wake me up at 8:30 because I think he was a little tiffed that I got home so late. Lets just say I hope I remember this if he ever gets home that late. I'd love to pay him back. haha

I am cooking dinner right now - we are having sausage, brats and twice baked potatoes. I am suddenly very hungry!

Hope you are all having a wonderful day! Talk to you soon!
Steph

Lots of road blocks today!

2009-04-22T20:15:00.002-05:00

Today got off to a bad start right away. I got up at my usual time - 5:30 - took my shower, and got ready for work. As I was cleaning my glasses, they BROKE. They broke a few months ago in the very same place, and Lens Crafters had advised me to take them to a jeweler close by that could solder them back together. I knew they would probably be able to fix them again, but I couldn't take them right away because I promised my DS I would take him to get his very first drivers license. Then I had to get back home to finish my work day. So, I managed to find an older pair of glasses to wear in the meantime. But guess what? They didn't have any nose pads on them. I think I remember taking them off and putting them on my DS's glasses one day when his broke. Well - you can see where this day is going, can't you? So, here I am working - trying very hard to see in my OLD prescription, with glasses that have no nose pads on them. Not a pretty site, I assure you. At 8:00 sharp my DS is ready to be taken to the DMV. I checked the list of items we needed to bring - ss card, list of driving hours, form filled out, ID. I thought I had it all. I was wrong. When we got there we were informed that we needed either a certified birth certificate OR a sealed HS transcript. Well - the birth cert. was going to cost us $20 and the transcript was free, so I opted to try getting the transcript. We drove all the way back home (well not home, but the school is really close to our house) and I went into the school only to find out the counselors were all doing ACT testing with the juniors and couldn't get me a transcript. I went back out to the car and told my DS and after looking at the very disappointed look on his face, I opted to try plan B - the birth certificate. We drove back into town to the dept. of vital records or whatever its called, only to be told there that there is a 3 day waiting period to get the birth certificate. This was not looking good for my son who really really wanted his license! I took him to school and told him I'd do my best to get a transcript for him today. You see - his birthday was on March 19 but he couldn't get his license then because there is a new rule in IL that you have to wait 9 months after you get your permit to get your license. You have to be 15 in order to take drivers ed. So he took drivers ed last summer, but they got him into the last session, which made him late getting his license. Its all so confusing- I know! OK - back to my story. I dropped him off at school and went home to work. Lucky for us the counselor called later today and said she would get the transcript to him before he left for the day. So the minute he got home, we had to rush to the DMV and finally he got his license. I took a cute picture of him posing with it but he made me promise not to post it on my blog. He knows me all too well. haha After getting his license, I ran to the jewelers to get my glasses fixed, too! So - all is well in my household tonight. But what a day it was getting to this point!

If you have read all the way to the bottom of this post, you are a true friend! I know this story is probably only interesting to me but still I wanted to share it here! After all of the stress of the day, I went outside and saw that my trees are blooming. I only have 4 trees, but they all bloom and they are so pretty in the spring! It really is my favorite time of year. So I grabbed my camera - as I always do -and took some pictures. I will leave you with one of favorites taken with my new lens. This is from my little $7 tree. I bought it a couple of years ago at Meijer at the end of the season - I figured it would probably die but for $7 I wasn't out much. Its still alive - it looks sort of like a Charlie Brown tree because it is VERY tiny - but it has such pretty flowers on it in the spring!

Hope you are all having a great evening!
Steph

As of tomorrow - this will be a part of Joey's past . . .

2009-04-21T15:38:00.001-05:00

My poor little doggie . . .

2009-04-20T21:43:00.005-05:00

she gets my camera in her face every single day! She is my favorite thing to take pics of because my kids won't let me take any of them! These are the latest ones I have taken - she is just so darn cute I can't help but snap everything she does. LOL

Oh - and here is what she does when she gets tired of me being on the computer:

She gets the point across quite well. haha

So what is everyone up to this week? Not much going on here. My DH is going to California for a couple of days for work - and I don't get to go with him. :( He swears he never has fun on business trips. Yeah right. I told him to try to get bumped on his flight so he can get me a free ticket. hehe I don't care where it goes - anywhere but here! Can you tell I NEED a vacation? I keep trying to talk him into a Florida trip - but so far its not working. He thinks vacations are nothing but a waste of money. Me - I think they are very much WORTH the money - everyone needs time to recharge, don't you think?

Well - I know this post is short and sweet but it almost 10:00 p.m. and when start working at 6:00 a.m., you get pretty darn tired by 10:00 at night!

Talk to you later!
Steph

First photo shoot and other random things . . .

2009-04-14T10:38:00.005-05:00

My friend Connie asked me a while ago to take some senior pics of her son. I was both happy and nervous about this. As you all know - I LOVE taking pictures. But I was so afraid she wouldn't like them or they wouldn't turn out! We did it last Saturday, and while it wasn't raining (which is good!), it was way too sunny (which is bad for taking pictures because it causes too much shadow on his face). I did get some that I thought turned out pretty good - I am posting some here for you to see. I hope Stephen doesn't mind me posting pics of him all over the place - but since I put them on Facebook, I figured he probably wouldn't mind me sharing them here as well! He was such a good sport about this - I couldn't have asked for a better subject to take pictures of. He did whatever we asked (Connie was my very helpful assistant, thinking up all the poses for me!), and I personally think he is just really photogenic.

After this, I spent lots of time on Sunday editing some of my favorites and then we had Easter dinner at my SIL's. Then Monday - back to work. :( :( :( Thankfully today is my day off and I can finally get caught up on laundry. Such a time-consuming job - and it never seems to be done! Anyway - hope you are all having a great day!
Talk to you soon!
Steph

Hello everyone!

2009-04-05T12:04:00.003-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while! Its been a busy week as usual. I sure wish the days were longer! ; ) I am having a great weekend so far! Yesterday I went to CKC and literally "shopped til I dropped". LOL My feet were killing me when I got home - and I didn't get home til late. But I sure had fun! The vendor fair was not as good as it usually is, but that didn't keep me from spending too much money. I got some fun stuff - the new scalloped punch from Fiskars (just a plain scallop), Chocolate Box Core'dinations paper (I love browns in LO's!), some Creative Cafe stamps, Thickers, some Pink Bubblegum glimmer mist, a couple of cute stamps from Archivers . . . I am sure theres more but I can't remember all of it right now. I met up with Christie and Nikki and had a lot of fun with them! We had lunch at Ruby Tuesdays and got to spend time shopping together. Just a fun carefree day! Today, I haven't done anything at all. LOL I have been sitting here on my computer most of the morning, looking at pictures on my SD card and web surfing. I slept til 9:00 this morning and I am still tired. Not good!!! I am hoping to scrap in a bit to use some of my new stuff. Hope you are all having a great day! I am off to find some lunch. Talk to you soon!
Steph\

Fun shopping finds!

2009-03-29T13:39:00.008-05:00

I was reading on 2 Peas that there were new cupcake stamps at Michaels. My store usually never has stuff when other stores do - in fact in the stamp section they haven't had anything new in a really really long time. But today I hit the jackpot. They were unpacking lots of stuff for the dollar section and some of the stuff was STAMPS! Look what I got:

So cute! I love cupcake stuff! After hitting up Michaels I decided to go by Penneys because I hadn't been there in ages and sometimes I can find a few tops there. I looked and looked but only found a couple that I liked, but then as I was heading out of the clothing section I passed the swimsuit section. N0 - I wasn't LOOKING for a swimsuit but there was one hanging there that just looked so cute. Maybe its all the snow we got that just made wish so much for summer. LOL Anyway - I went and tried it on - and even though I am not thin and cute in it, it actually fit OK, so I snatched it up! I can't tell you the last time I bought a swimsuit - its been a really long time ago though. Heres a pic:

Its called "Tropical Desert". LOL Too bad I'm not going anywhere tropical to wear it!

Well - just wanted to share my fun finds today! Talk to you soon!
Steph

ETA: Sorry about the bottom row of stamps - guess I need to change my aperture to get a better pic of ALL the stamps! I'll try to post a better one in a bit!

Ahhhh - Spring !

2009-03-29T09:17:00.005-05:00

I know - not exactly the picture of spring, but this is what I woke up to this morning : (

I guess the weather man wasn't wrong after all. He said it was going to snow. And it did. And it still IS snowing. A LOT. I just want SPRING. Is that asking too much? I really do NOT like this white stuff when its almost April!!! I know it could be worse though. I doubt we got as much as many others got, so I should just be thankful for that, huh! Whats on tap for everyone on this wonderful Sunday? I am planning to hit up Michaels and see if they have anything new. Then its off to get some groceries. Fun Fun. That is, if the roads aren't too bad.

Talk to you soon!
Steph

How frustrating!

2009-03-25T15:49:00.002-05:00

Well apparently CK decided to change their message board - surprise. But NOW I can't log in. :( Don't they know how addicted I am to that board? How frustrating it is that I can't talk to all my online friends? I emailed them so hopefully they will be able to help but with the last board fiasco I am not holding my breath. Thank God for Facebook. LOL

In other news, my DH is suppose to be coming home from Dallas today but as usual his flight has already been pushed back. He may or may not be home tonight. Looks like its just me and Joey tonight again for dinner! He's not feeling so well today - he has a bad cold. He really wanted to stay home from school but hes missed a bunch when he "said" he wasn't feeling well and then made a miraculous recovery shortly after school started, so I am making him stick it out now unless he wakes up puking. haha I did feel bad today though because I could tell he really did not feel well. I told him to make it to lunch and if he wanted to come home to call but he didn't call. He had two tests before lunch that I wanted him to get in before he came home. ; ) Won't be long and he will be out of school anyway. Only 2 more months to go.

Well - gotta go for now. Maybe I will do something productive around here - or . . . maybe not. LOL Talk to you soon!
Steph

Wow - time keeps flying by!

2009-03-22T08:49:00.004-05:00

This past week went pretty fast. Thursday was my DS's 16th birthday! We went to Longhorn Steakhouse to celebrate. My DD was on Spring break this week too so she went and told the people at the restaurant to sing to him. He was not too happy but it was fun! He got an I-pod touch for his birthday so he has been in Heaven downloading apps for it. He downloaded one where he can access his computer remotely. He told me one day to go into his room and look at the screen. This is what he did from the other room:

Funny boy, he is.

I hope you are all having a great weekend! It is going way too fast for me. Yesterday was a blur. Honestly I don't know where it went. I spent most of it working on a little mini-album to put some photography tips in. I took a class with Candice Stringham a while ago and I learned so much from her, but I keep forgetting some of the most important things so I thought it might be fun to make a mini album and then I can refer to it whenever I am out taking pictures. Gotta write stuff down when you get old like me. LOL I hope to work on it some more today.

Have a great Sunday! Talk to you soon!
Steph

Is it a mummy?

2009-03-11T17:43:00.005-05:00

Can you guess what this is? Fed Ex brought it today. It reminded me of a tiny mummy. LOL

Give up? OK - here's whats inside that package of bubble wrap and a hundred yards of tape:

Yep! My new ATG gun! I have heard wonderful things about this baby so I hope it lives up to its reputation! I am so sick of buying tape and adhesive for scrapbooking that I decided to invest in an ATG gun and 10 rolls of tape. I really really had a hard time spending that much money on adhesive, but I know I would have spent much more if I HADN'T bought it, by just using my regular tape runners that I buy at Meijer, at almost $5 each, that only last through one project usually. I will let you know later what I think of it. I did try it out a little bit ago and I think its going to take some getting use to to figure out how to work it properly.

Well - nothing more to tell right now! Sorry - its been a boring week so far! LOL Not like the kind of week a certain friend of mine is having at DISNEY WORLD. I'm not jealous or anything though. Nope. Not me. (yeah right!!!)

I hope everyone is having a great week!
Talk to you soon!
Steph

Just a quick LO to share . . .

2009-03-05T16:38:00.013-06:00

I did this LO of my DD when she was little. She had a very short soccer career - she was more interested in picking weeds, daydreaming, and doing cartwheels than she was in playing soccer. LOL TFL!

ETA: The pictures were all taken by a photographer during each season. In the middle picture she has a black eye which we covered up with makeup as best we could! LOL One of my neighbors was going to kick a soccer ball to his daughter, when my daughter was going to pick it up at the same time. It was a complete accident, but my neighbor accidentally kicked her in the eye with his wing-tipped shoes. Luckily my eye doctor had a son on the team also and had us put a butterfly bandage on it and ice it!

Just some random stuff . . .

2009-03-03T09:36:00.008-06:00

First, I have been meaning to post this but have been way too busy lately! I was given this wonderful "Your Blog is Fabulous" award from my SIL, Dottie! Isn't she cute? (I had way too much fun editing her dress in PSE6! LOL). Anyway - because i have been given this award I am suppose to tell you 5 things I am addicted to, so here goes:
1. Pepsi.
2. Scrapbooking (and shopping for scrapbooking stuff!).
3. Scrapbook blogs.
4. Scrapbook magazines (I am seeing a trend here . . . )
5. Taking pictures.
I know - boring life I have but thats it in a nutshell. I didn't mention my family or my little doggie, because those go without saying! I am also suppose to pass this on to 5 bloggers that I enjoy visiting so here is who I am giving my award to:
1. Christie
2. Leea
3. Nikki
4. Noel
5. Joscie

(Sorry for taking so long to post this Dottie!!!)

In other news, my DD is almost done with cheerleading season. Their last home game was last weekend. She is going with the squad to Sioux Falls, SD for a tournament this weekend and then they are officially done for the season. There are a few pics posted below that I took at the game this past weekend. The pizza pic is of her giving away a pizza - in the 3rd quarter of all the games they give some Papa John's pizzas away to the "noisiest fans" in the stands. Its fun to see people screaming their heads off for a pizza. LOL All in all, even though she couldn't stunt as much as she would have liked due to her surgery last summer, I think she really enjoyed the season and met some wonderful friends. I am somewhat jealous (and very happy for her!!!) that she has gotten the opportunity to experience this. I never had the opportunity to go to away to college, so this was one thing I strongly wished for her to experience. It really is an opportunity of a lifetime, IMO.
Well - I am off to run my usual Tuesday errands!!! Oh - if you are in town, look for a Driver's Ed car tooling around - my son has behind the wheel this week and next. LOL He won't get his license on his birthday (which he has informed me this morning, is in 16 days!), because he has to wait 9 months from the time he got his permit - so he will get it in April. But as you know - it will be here before you know it!

An exciting day!

2009-02-25T15:04:00.002-06:00

http://bethproudfoot.blogspot.com/2009/02/sssalad-two-ways.html

A while ago Beth was having this wonderful giveaway on her blog. She was giving away such cute stuff too - My Little Yellow Bicycle Love Notes collection things. They have such pretty paper and she said she was purging some things and wanted to give it away to some lucky winner. Well, I entered and totally forgot about it until I saw she posted on my blog to let me know I had won! Yay for me! For those of you who don't know Beth Proudfoot (and thats only if you don't do scrapbooking! LOL), she worked for one of my favorite scrapbook magazines that will no longer be in print - Simple Scrapbooks. I will miss that magazine and all of their creative people so much! Well - I am off to try to learn some photo editing. I signed up last night for the Jessica Sprague photo editing course - its self paced. I need this class so much so I better get to cracking!

A new look!

2009-02-24T15:35:00.003-06:00

I have been surfing the net today looking for a new background for my blog. I usually make one up myself, but this site has such cute ones and all the work is already done for me, so I couldn't resist! Have you all had a fabulous Tuesday? I have! As usual I had my normal Tues. morning of running errands. I use my debit card constantly, and I recently got a letter that my card number may have been "compromised" again (this is the second time this has happened in a little over a year!). So I got the new card in the mail yesterday and today I went to the bank to set my PIN number. I felt so lost without my debit card! I really rely on that thing way too much. I use it everywhere I go it seems. After that it was off to the secretary of state to get a license plate sticker for my DH's car. Of course, I had to run into Joann Fabrics and Michaels because after all, I was out! LOL I did end up getting a cute little punch at Michaels and some cardstock at Joanns. I was good though and only spent $20! I think thats a record for me . . . anyway - after that I was pretty darn hungry so I ran to Taco Gringo. I love their sanchos and I hardly ever get to go there. Lucky me it is right down the street from the sec. of state! After that it was off to the grocery store for a couple of things and then to the vet for more dog food. I saw the cutest little yorkie in there. I often think I should work at a vet - I could see cute little dogs all day long! Plus they wear the cutest scrubs with puppies on them. : ) My DH did the taxes the other night and we are actually getting some money back. So . . . I asked if we could please put some back for a little mini vacation. He reluctantly agreed and now comes the decision of where to go. I don't know if it will be just us two or the whole family but these days getting the whole family to do anything together is quite a chore! I am not sure flying would be an option because it might cost too much, unless we get a great deal somewhere. There are lots of places I'd like to see - North Carolina, Tennessee, Washington . . . So here comes a question for all of you . . . if you had just a little bit of money , where would you go? Any ideas that I can actually entice my kids into going to as well? And remember - they ARE teenagers that HATE to be with their parents! LOL
Anyway - hope you are all having a great day.

A couple of LO's to share . . .

2009-02-17T17:42:00.002-06:00

On Sunday I did the Guitar Hero LO. It is of my DS when he won the Guitar Hero contest at our mall last summer. I used some letters that I got at TJ Maxx last summer - they are metal, and I stamped music notes with StazOn on them. I also used my new little sewing machine on the LO, and used my Coordinations paper that is black on one side and colored on the other. I ran a piece through my Cuttlebug and sanded it so that the red would show through. I seriously felt like I drug out "everything but the kitchen sink" for this LO. LOL (I know - I am showing my age by using that phrase!!!). The second LO I just did today. I was going through some things in my bedroom, and came across this little booklet that my son made me when he was younger. I just HAD to scrap it. I didn't feel like scanning in the pages so I just took pictures of them with my camera. It is the sweetest little book! I used some new Doodlebug paper that I got last time I went to Archivers. The letters were cut with my Cricut using Base Camp. Other than scrapping, not much else is going on here - I've been doing laundry all day. I am almost finished with it though. Yippeee!!! Well - I am off to figure out what my DS and I are having for dinner. My DH has a business dinner so its just us two. Talk to you soon! Steph

If only . . .

2009-02-15T19:15:00.003-06:00

every day could be a weekend! LOL Its been a fun, laid back one. Yesterday I ran errands - ALL DAY. Seriously, I left the house at 9:30 a.m. and returned home at 3:30 p.m., and still had one more place to go after that. I went everywhere - Michaels, Joann Fabrics, Hobby Lobby, Kohls, Shopko, Sam's Club, Wal Mart, Target - by the time I got home my feet were throbbing. Then I made dinner and crashed! Today was spent scrapping in the morning and this afternoon, I cleaned up my scrap table. I can see the glass now! Yay! It seems to collect things as quickly as my house collects dust. One minute I have a desk and the next it is full of stuff and I can only see a tiny little part of the desk. It seems that every time I scrap I am trying to use a little tiny space to scrap on because everything in my room has managed to land on my desk. Its funny because when I took a class at Archivers a while back, my work space there was like that too! LOL Maybe thats just how its suppose to be for me. We just got back a little while ago from Steak & Shake. We went with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law. Then I wrapped up a care package to send to my DD at school. I have all kinds of fun stuff in the box - including very belated valentines stuff! (I know - bad bad mom!!!). I got the cutest bookmarks at Barne's & Noble with dogs on them, so I stuck those in there along with candy, a pair of socks, and a desktop photo thing which holds some 4 x 6 pics. I put the cute little pic of Lexi in it for her. I didn't have a box for it all to fit, so I went out to the garage and took the box that garbage bags were in. I'm sure she will appreciate getting a box of Hefty bags as a gift. LOL So I wrapped it all up in brown packing paper and addressed it, taped the heck out of it, too. Then she calls me a few minutes ago and asks if I packed her new medicine. I got it 2 weeks ago and keep forgetting to send it to her! Well wouldn't you know it was NOT in the box? So guess what - I unwrapped the box, put the medicine in it and wrapped it back up. The things I do for my kids! That sucker is going in the mail tomorrow before she remembers something else I need to send her!

Well - I am off to do some stuff before the evening is over. Hope you are all having a great Sunday! Talk to you soon!
Steph

A cute picture to share.

2009-02-11T19:49:00.003-06:00

My daughter wanted a picture of our dog for her dorm room. I have hundreds of pics of my dog, because every time I want to experiment with my camera settings, she is my usual subject! The poor thing hates when I pick up a camera now! Anyway - I was looking through some CD's and came across this one. It is one of my favorites because she has a good fur-do going on in this pic, and she just looks really sweet! I did do a few PSE actions on it - I bought some a while ago when I was taking my Oh Shoot class - honestly I don't remember who they were from either. I need to figure that out because I really like them and I need to see if she has any new ones! I used the "turn the lights on!" and the "give me color" actions on this photo. It really helped to brighten it up. I think my daughter will like this picture! Well- I'm off to find a snack. My husband & I had date night tonight - we have that every wednesday - and we went to one of my favorite places - Xochimilco - they have really good fajitas! Plus its right around the corner from my house! I always eat 1/2 and take 1/2 home for lunch the next day. Since I am at home every day now and usually eat tv dinners, the fajitas for lunch are a special treat! The only bad thing about them is I always seem to need something sweet after I eat them! Hope you are all having a great Wednesday! Talk to you soon!
Steph

Hi everyone!

2009-02-10T17:22:00.003-06:00

Today was my day off, and I started it out at the doctors office. I have had a little bit of a sore throat and an earache for a while now - it kind of comes and goes, not real intense, but I still thought it might be best to check it out. Well - turns out I have fluid in my ear, and he said my throat is pretty raw in the back. Isn't that funny - just a little bit of pain and it apparently looks awful! LOL It seems that I always get ear infections anymore. Whats up with that? Isn't that suppose to happen to little kids, not adults? Anyway- now I am on the Z-pak for a few days. Other than that its been somewhat of a lazy day. I had all sorts of things I SHOULD have done, but needless to say - they didn't get done! I was working on a LO and was sewing with my little Janome machine and then remembered that I had planned to make a camera strap cover for my camera some day. I had the material and never did get around to doing it. I kept seeing some really cute ones on Etsy but they were more than I wanted to spend, so today I drug out my fabric while I had the machine out, and made a cover. Its not perfect but I think its cute and it covers up the big NIKON across the strap. LOL What do you think? Well - I need to go make dinner for the family. I hope you are all having a great day! Talk to you soon!
Steph

Its been a while . . .

2009-02-08T11:26:00.007-06:00

Wow - I haven't posted in a few days! Sorry about that! There's not much new here, except work and scrappin! LOL Last night we went to a game to watch my DD cheer. Here's a pic of her stunting. It was at the beginning of the game so there are people walking by and I really didn't feel like cloning them out, as I am feeling lazy today. LOL I thought it was a cute pic though. The guy who is putting her up lives on her floor in her dorm so they have become friends. I took it with my new lens. I am not sure yet how I like it, but since I cut up the box to send in the $30 rebate, I guess I am stuck with it. haha I do like it, I am just not use to it not having VR, and I am usually bad at camera shake. So we will see how it goes. I will say one thing though - it was WONDERFUL not having to constantly switch lenses!!!

Oh - and heres a pic of a basket the team made! I was trying to get a pic of my DD watching them score, because she is right on the end by the basket, and I accidentally got the ball right in the basket. I couldn't have did that if I tried otherwise! Yesterday when I was watching the game and taking pics, the lady sitting next to me asked me if I was taking pictures for a job or for fun. I was kind of confused at first and then when I told my DD about it she said "mom, most people don't have cameras like that at the games". You can tell who the REAL photographer is though - he has a lens that is a mile long! (actually - if you look hard you can see him in the picture below - he is sitting on the floor with his camera). I do love taking pics though and am very happy with my camera. Sometimes I think it would be nice to have a more advanced model, but then I feel guilty because I really do love the one I have. I wish taking pics at the game WAS a job that I could get paid for! That would be cool.

Speaking of school, this semester is kind of tough for her so I made this card to cheer her up:

Isn't it the cutest thing ever? Well - if you like Hello Kitty that is! I love my new cricut cartridge. I got it last weekend on sale at Hobby Lobby and I am in love with this cart. It cuts out the cutest stuff! Anyway - not much else going on here this weekend. Today we are headed to Circuit City in a little bit to see if there is anything left to buy for a great deal. I hate to see that store close - I really liked it. Its so bad that so many businesses are closing these days - I sure hope Obama can get things turned around while in office. Its a big job though - so who knows.

I hope you are all having a great and fabulous weekend! Talk to you soon!
Steph

Happy Saturday!

2009-01-31T20:40:00.003-06:00

Is everyone having a good weekend? I went to a baby shower today for ny nephew's wife. It was a lot of fun, and the food was great. She had registered at Babies R Us and I swear she could open up her own store after it was all said and done! she got a TON of stuff! They just might need a bigger house now. LOL And would you believe I FORGOT MY CAMERA? I can't believe it! I could have kicked myself. I really meant to bring it but we left in a rush and I totally forgot it. I remembered once we got out of town - the shower was in St. Louis. I was so mad. There were so many things I wanted to take a picture of too. Oh well. I will just have to remember it when the baby is born in March - and take LOTS of pics then. It won't be the same though - I'm still mad that I didn't have it today. After the shower I talked my husband into taking me to Hobby Lobby in Fairview Hgts on the way home to see if they had the Hello Kitty cartridge for my Cricut. They are on sale this week (today is the last day) and I had heard that some HL's were carrying them - there were none in the store where I live. Guess what? They had it! I was so excited! It has a lot of cute stuff on it. I can see using this one a lot. It was worth the detour out of town. Plus I got it on sale. Gotta love a bargain!

Is everyone ready for the super bowl tomorrow? I am not a football fan so I usually only watch the commercials during it since they are usually pretty funny. My DH is going to Chicago to watch it with some of his old fraternity brothers, and my son is going to a friends house to watch it, and since my DD is at school, its just me and my little Lexi watching it I guess. I'll have to watch it in my scraproom so I can do scrapbooking while the game is playing. ha Well - hope you are all having a great weekend! Talk to you soon!
Steph

Happy Saturday

2009-01-31T20:40:00.000-06:00

2009-01-27T17:51:00.005-06:00

Yay - a day off! I spent most of the morning lounging around the house doing absolutely NOTHING. And it was SOOOO nice! Well - I did do a load of laundry, if that counts. I went online and updated my profile picture, and my avatar at CK, went on some message boards and then went over to B&H's website and ordered a new lens for my camera! I have been wanting to get the 18-200 Tamron lens for a long time. I am constantly switching lenses because I either need a lens that zooms or one that gets close up and with the two I have, neither one will do both. So I am hoping this 18-200 lens will solve the problem. The only thing I am worried about is the fact that it does not have VR on it. Hopefully that won't be a big deal. I ordered it with 2 day shipping so I should receive it on Thursday. I'll let you know how it works when I get it! This afternoon, I spent some time doing a LO of my son's first day of school. Yes - I am well aware that its January and he started last August. You know what they say - better late than never! Heres the LO. Its really simple, but thats what I wanted. I really just wanted to document how he looked on his first day of his sophomore year! Now, I am off to figure out what we are having for supper. I really HATE that job! Hope you are all having a great day! Talk to you soon! Steph

I know - 2 posts in one day - unheard of! LOL

2009-01-25T14:41:00.003-06:00

I just finished a LO for a challenge over on the Creating Keepsakes MB and thought I would post it here too. Its a LO of a few friends I have at the hospital where I use to work. We all use to go to lunch once a week together and then one girl took a job in another department and couldn't go anymore and then after that I lost my job, so now I don't see them very often anymore. :( So . . . we all get together for lunch on the weekends sometimes. We tried to do it once a month but it was so hard with our schedules. Its always so fun to see them though and we just had our last lunch yesterday, so the bottom picture was taken then. The other picture was taken a while ago - I posted about it on the blog a few months ago. The challenge was to use things in 2's or 3's because Jennifer posted the challenge on the 23rd of January. It was so fun to use 2 and 3 of things. I used Memory Makers Chloe's Closet patterned paper - that stuff is so cute! I also used my slice to cut out the word "gang" and also the flourishes. I used my new Upper Crest punch on this, and also used some new Creative Cafe ribbon on it. Drug out some of my new stuff for this LO! It sure was a fun way to spend a gloomy Sunday! Talk to you soon!
Steph

Its snowing here!

2009-01-25T09:23:00.003-06:00

I am not sure how much we are suppose to get but its snowing pretty good right now. My dog hates snow because she prefers to do her business on grass and when it snows, she can't FIND the grass. LOL I grabbed my camera and put it on shutter priority to try to get some shots of the snowflakes. I have never taken pictures of snow before so it was kind of fun for a change! So . . . whats everyone up to this weekend? I am planning to scrap today - I just need to figure out what I want to do. It just looks like the perfect day to turn my little heater on in my scraproom and have some fun! Hope you are all having a great weekend! Talk to you soon!
Steph

Sharing a card I made today.

2009-01-20T18:53:00.003-06:00

OK - we are big Hello Kitty fans at my house (at least my DD and me!). I found a H.K. Sizzix die this weekend and made this card for my DD. I doubt that she visits my blog so I will share it here. I used pink cardstock from Michaels (the stack in the Valentine's section), my new Martha Stewart heart border punch ( I love this punch - its so cute!), a Studio G stamp for the inside (the heart), and my Slice machine with the Noteworthy cartridge to make the tag inside. Oh - and I used American Crafts ribbon on the inside too. I made this this afternoon after I took my little princess to the vet for her yearly appointment. She had a good appt. - she lost 1 pound since last year which the vet thought was good. She had to get 2 shots and have a heartworm test. She was so brave and didn't even cry once. Ever since she had her bladder surgery a little over a year ago, when I take her in for any appt. she hides her little head in my arm when they do things to her. It breaks my heart! Now I am off to finish up some laundry that I started earlier. Hope you are all having a great Tuesday!
Steph

It can't be over already!!!

2009-01-18T20:13:00.003-06:00

It seems as though the weekend just started and now its over already! How sad! Friday night I stayed home and watched 2 movies on HBO - 27 Dresses and PS I Love You. I wasn't so fond of the last one, but I did enjoy 27 dresses. I know it didn't get such great reviews when it first came out but I still enjoyed it. Saturday, I ran a few errands in the morning and then we left for WIU where my DD cheered at 2 basketball games. My DS left today for a birthday party at Andalusia (not sure if I spelled that right). They were going snowboarding. He brought all kinds of clothes to bundle up in and I signed the generic waiver saying if he should break every bone in his body, they are not responsible. Lets just say he BETTER come back in 1 piece!!! Also, my DD left today to go back to school, after being home for a month. She went to the book store shen she got back, to buy books for the new semester - to the tune of $847.00. I nearly passed out when she told me how much they were. Why does everything have to be so expensive??? She doesn't plan to open them until she knows that she actually NEEDS them. I think thats a very good plan. Maybe she can return some and get her money back. Half the time she buys books that she never even opens the entire semester - what a huge waste of money! Last semester we paid over $600 for books and when she went to sell them back she got $87.00. Sounds fair to me, what do you think??? Well - thats all we have had going on here - I hope everyone had a great weekend! Talk to you soon!
Steph

Amtrak, anyone?

2009-01-13T19:38:00.004-06:00

My DD decided to go on a little trip - alone. Now I know she is almost 20 years old, and I am all for her growing up and gaining independence, but this mom business sure is hard sometimes! LOL She is on break from college and goes back next week. On Sunday she and her friend Lauren decided that she would go visit Lauren in Chicago. Its a 4 hour train ride from our city to Chicago. So I took her to the train station and after she got on the train, I worried. A LOT. I told her in the station to sit by the conductor on the train and she asked me why - I said "because you'll be safer there". I also told her not to go to sleep for fear that her things would be stolen. Yes, I know I am a bit nuts at times with all my incessant worrying. I also am quite certain she did not listen to me. I also told her to call me when she got there and found her friend at the train station. I have been to the station in Chicago - and quite honestly I was not ready for my little girl to be there all alone. She was suppose to be there by 11:30 p.m. I fell asleep and woke up at 1:30 - and she had not called . Of course I did what I normally do - started to panic. I called her and asked why she didn't call me and she said she was still on the train! They were running 2 hours behind because 2 freight trains were stuck on the tracks along the way. So - 15 minutes later she called me and said she was finally there and found Lauren. I was so relieved! Now I have to stress as she comes home tomorrow. What can I say? Anxiety is my middle name. Oh - and the picture is definitely posed. I got my camera out and she said "you act like I'm an only child or something!". Then she informed me that she would pose for ONE picture and that was it! LOL

7 days into January already!

2009-01-07T20:51:00.002-06:00

Where does the time go? It seems like it was just Christmas and now it is already January 7! Have you all been busy so far this year? Do you have your resolutions all on a list and ready to be met? I have a few for the year - for starters I want to find a job that not only pays my bills, but has BENEFITS. I want to take a vacation and actually get paid for being off work. If I am sick I want to say I can "call in sick", instead of having to worry about making up that day because I don't have any real time off. Its the little things in life. LOL Another resolution of mine is to spend more time with my friends. Friendships are so important in life, so why do I not make more time to spend with mine? Just last night I went out with one of my very best friends for dinner. I always have so much fun with her and it seems that we hardly ever get to see each other. It reminds me that I really need to do it more often. Another goal of mine that I always seem to have first thing in January and then by February it is long since forgotten is to actually try to get in better shape. Of course, eating healthy and exercising are not things I am really totally committed to but I do dream that one day I will be able to lose weight and look better. I find that the older I get the more I eat poorly and gain weight. I use to be thin back in the day - hopefully some day I can be that way again! I will have to dig up an old pic of me when I was thin and post it. People who didn't know me back then will be so surprised in the difference between then and now! Well - its off to bed for me. Hope you are all having a fabulous Wednesday! Talk to you soon!
Steph

Woo hoo - Christmas is over! LOL

2008-12-28T15:28:00.003-06:00

I just did NOT have the Christmas spirit this year so I for one am very happy its over! I sure hope I am more into it next year because I really don't like being a scrooge. I think it was because I had no time off this year and had to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas day, which I never have had to do before. Since I have a new job, I didn't get to ask off this year because they already had too many people off. Luckily I only worked 4 hours on Christmas day, but still it was 4 hours too many for me. Then, 2 days after Christmas my nephew got married. They had a very small wedding. They looked so adorable. They really make such a cute couple. I took a bunch of pictures at the wedding but unfortunately they didn't turn out so great because I had to take them with no flash and no tripod so most were blurry. I'll share a couple with you though - the first is of the bride and groom, and the second is of my two children at the reception. I'm pretty happy to get a picture of my two kids together -that hardly ever happens anymore! Anyway - hope you are all enjoying your weekend. If you got some fun scrappy things, have fun playing! Talk to you soon!
Steph

Some Thursday fun.

2008-12-18T16:01:00.003-06:00

OK - I got up this morning and went into my scraproom/office to go to work, and this was sitting on my desk. My DH left it there last night when he got home from his office Christmas party (I was already sound asleep when he got home). So I opened it up to see what was inside:

And then my dog came into my office to see it too.
I think she thought it was a giant toy or something. LOL

Don't mind the mess in the room. and don't you just LOVE the desk? Its my cheapo desk from K-Mart. I wasn't sure if I was going to keep the job, so I didn't want to invest a lot of money in equipment, so I got the cheapest one I could find. The keyboard tray was way too small and when you type all day, you have to have room for the keyboard and mouse without constantly fumbling around for stuff, so I made a make-shift keyboard tray extender. haha I went out and bought a piece of foam board, cut it in half, glued it together to make one long sheet, and this now sits on my keyboard tray and holds my mouse and keyboard. It works well, and if I want to get rid of it, all I have to do is take it off the desk and pitch it. Speaking of making things. . . my DD is home from college for winter break, and she comes into my office this afternoon and says she has nominated me to make scrapbooks for her entire floor of her dorm. I thought she was kidding, but I am now thinking she is very serious. She says "they don't have to be big or anything". Hmmmm - how much free time does she think I have, anyway? hehe
Well - hope you are all having a great Thursday. Tomorrow is FRIDAY. Yay! We almost made it through another work week!
Talk to you soon!
Steph

Another fun scrapbook Christmas poem for you - again courtesy of CKMB!

2008-12-16T17:02:00.001-06:00

'Twas the night before Christmas, I'm glued to the tree. I'm wondering what Santa brought just for me. Could it be cardstock or chipboard or lace?" Or a Cricut," I said, with a smile on my face. And that's when I heard him, "Hi Santa!" I said. "You know....good little girls should be in their beds." "I know I should Santa, and now I've got caught. But I was just so excited to see what you brought." "Well, let's take a look in this room where you work." He shook his head quickly, and left with a *. I heard him exclaim as he put it in gear... "You've got enough crap, I'll see you next year!"

Happy Thursday

2008-12-11T20:16:00.002-06:00

Well - its almost Friday. Now that I am not paid hourly, I am never quite sure how I feel about that though. I use to LOVE Fridays. I could finally unwind and relax for the weekend. But now . . . I just keep thinking of how much money I DIDN'T make during the week and that makes me a bit sad for the weekend, ya know? Its only been a month at the new job, so I know it will get better - just now sure I can stick it out - patience is NOT a strong trait of mine. Aww - who am I kidding - its not a trait of mine at all. LOL So - change of subject - have you all been shopping for gifts this week? I went shopping on Tuesday but didn't really get too much. I need to get out there this weekend and make some major progress. I have tons of things to buy still. Honestly - I am just NOT into it this year. I don't know what the problem is. On the subject of Christmas, I have a fun video to share with you all - sort of Christmas-y. I have to confess - I found it on another blog but the end of it cracked me up so I thought Id share it with you as well. Hope you have a great evening. Enjoy!

Finally - I have a tree!

2008-12-09T20:06:00.003-06:00

I have put my tree up this year in phases - I started out the weekend after Thanksgiving. I had my DH bring the tree and ornaments up from the basement. I sat and looked at the box all weekend. I just couldn't bring myself to actually open the box and take anything out so I just glanced at it every time I walked past it. Then the following weekend, I took the lights out and tested them. Then a few days after that I assembled the tree. Then a few days later, I started decorating it. Today, I put a few more things on it and I am finally calling it done. It never takes me this long to put a tree up - I don't know what the problem is this year. But lets just say I am very glad its done!!! After finishing up that project, I decided to go out and do some Christmas shopping since it was my day off. I did end up with a few people crossed off my list, but I still have the really hard ones to buy for - mainly my DH. He is SOOOOO hard to buy for! It started out as a wonderful shopping day - it got up in the 50's today, and i didn't even have to wear a winter coat. But as the day went on, it got a bit colder and then started to rain. Its suppose to sleet and snow tonight. Winter is back, unfortunately. I am finding that that is the BEST part about working from home - when its cold and yucky out, I don't have to leave the house - except to take my dog out to potty. LOL Well - just wanted to get on here and share my excitement about finally getting the tree up and attempting to get into the holiday spirit! Hope you are all having a great day. Talk to you soon!
Steph

Banner credits . . .

2008-12-02T08:36:00.002-06:00

I wanted to post credits for my new blog banner. All the elements on the banner are from Summer Driggs Giving kit. All of her kits are absolutely awesome - I love them all! The font on the banner is Retro Rock Poster - don't ask where I got it - I honestly can't remember!
Hope you are all having a fabulous Tuesday. I know I will, as it is my day off! Talk to you later!
Steph

The 12 days of Christmas - scrapbook style!

2008-12-01T09:36:00.008-06:00

Here's a cute version of the 12 Days of Christmas, courtesy of the fun girls on the CK message board:

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me some ribbon in a yard of three.
On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, two shimmer mists and some ribbon in a yard of three.
On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, three border punches, two shimmer mists, and some ribbon in a yard of three!
On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, four packs of adhesive, three border punches, two shimmer mists, and some ribbon in a yard of three!
On the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 5 golden brads,four packs of adhesive, three border punches, two shimmer mists, and some ribbon in a yard of three!
On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me 6 paper trimmers, 5 golden brads, 4 packs of adhesive, 3 border punches, 2 shimmer mists and some ribbon in a yard of 3
On the seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me seven cute home-made cards, six paper trimmers, five golden brads, four packs of adhesive, three border punches, two shimmer mists, and some ribbon in a yard of three.
On the Eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 8 packs of rub-ons, seven cute home-made cards, six paper trimmers, five golden brads, four packs of adhesive, three border punches, two shimmer mists, and some ribbon in a yard of three.
On the Ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 9 sheets of cardstock, 8 packs of rub-ons, seven cute home-made cards, six paper trimmers, five golden brads, four packs of adhesive, three border punches, two shimmer mists, and some ribbon in a yard of three.
On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 10 loaded gift cards, 9 sheets of cardstock, 8 packs of rub-ons, 7 cute home-made cards, 6 paper trimmers, 5 golden brads, 4 packs of adhesives, 3 border punches, 2 shimmer mists and some ribbon in a yard of three.
On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, eleven packs of Thickers, ten loaded gift cards, nine sheets of cardstock, 8 packs of rub-ons, 7 cute homemade cards, 6 paper trimmers, 5 golden brads, 4 packs of adhesive, 3border punches, 2 shimmer mists, and some ribbon in a yard of three.
On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 12 cricut cartridges, 11 packs of Thickers, 10 loaded gift cards, 9 sheets of cardstock, 8 packs of rub-ons, 7 cute homemade cards, 6 paper trimmers, 5 golden brads, 4 packs of adhesive, 3 border punches, 2 shimmer mists, and some ribbon in a yard of three.

Now THAT'S the kind of Christmas I'm talking about! Especially the loaded gift cards - I hope they are from Archivers! LOL

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T09:26:00.003-06:00

I can't believe Thanksgiving is here already. Though this year has not been the best one for me it IS flying by! LOL I spent Mon. and Tues. in Chicago with my daughter seeing doctors and having tests done - follow up stuff from her surgery in June. We are glad to have that all behind us since she had to have another CMG (a catheter test to check her bladder function). She also got a full release from the neurosurgeon. That means she can now do stunting in cheerleading. I am not sure I like that idea but she is very happy about it. Dr. Bowman said "how about I give you a full release, and you don't tell me what that entails?". haha Dr. Bowman is so nice and such a cautious and great surgeon - she had originally said she would release her in 3 months, but then didn't. Honestly I am surprised she released her now - since she just had her surgery in June. Heather has been sitting on the sidelines every time they stunt - and let me tell you - they do a LOT of stunting in college cheerleading. It has been so frustrating for her because thats what she loves most about cheering. Lets just pray she stays safe now, though! Anyway - I returned home very late Tuesday night, went straight to bed and yesterday I worked. Today I am "suppose" to be working but here is what there is to do right now:

See that blank screen??? That means there is no work for me to do. I am definitely looking for a new job STAT. This one is clearly not working out too well. I will miss being at home - that part has been so nice. But being at home is not as important to me as getting a real paycheck, ya know? Well - hope you are all having a fabulous Thanksgiving. Don't stuff yourselves too much - though I know thats really hard not to do on a day like today! Oh - and have fun shopping all the black Friday sales! Buy some scrapbook stuff for me! ; )

Some photos of my baby to share!

2008-11-18T18:42:00.004-06:00

I wanted to post these pics I took today. The first one is one I have been wanting to get for a long time - I LOVE when my dog sits with her paws all tucked in. She looks like a little hen laying on her eggs. LOL I always think she must be cold when she sits like this. The other picture is what I get EVERY TIME I make the bed. She jumps up on the bed and doesn't budge. I have to move her to actually make the bed. Such a stubborn spoiled little girl. haha

So other than sharing pics I guess I should fill you in on whats going on around here. I have been trying very hard to adapt to my new job but day by day I am afraid it isn't going to work out. Yesterday I had no cardiac work to type (which is what I actually know how to do), so I told them to give me more work of a different type. They gave me discharge summaries. Now, they WERE more interesting, but they were definitely not terminology I was use to so it took me way more time to type them. I was totally exhausted by the end of the day - and do you know what I ended up making? $6 an hour. Yep. $6.00. I could have made more at McDonalds. I just wanted to cry. I was so frustrated after not knowing what I was doing and then to only make $6.00/hr - I just don't know if its worth it. I know if I stick with it I will get faster and it will pay off more but I just don't know if I can stick it out long enough to find out. My DH is getting stressed and is trying to find me a new job. How thoughtful. LOL We shall see how the rest of the week goes . . . hopefully better than yesterday! Well - hope you are all doing well. Have a great week! Steph

YAY - ITS FRIDAY!

2008-11-14T21:21:00.003-06:00

Wow has it been a loooooooonnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggg week! I started my new job this week. Monday I had 4 hours of training, and then worked for 2 1/2 hours. Tuesday - day off. YAY. Wednesday - 1 hour of training and then work. Thursday and Friday work all day. Well let me just say - I literally made NO money this week. When I added it up I wanted to cry. This getting paid for what you actually DO sucks. I have been spoiled getting an hourly wage at all my other jobs - LOL I do realize it was my first week and I have to learn everything. Plus I have been doing some work that I have never done before so its been a big learning experience. But still - the whole money thing is looming over my head. I still have a couple of weeks while I get my severance pay to see if this will work out. Time will tell. I DO, however, love working from home. I can sleep in a bit later because there is no commuting, I can sit at my computer while my little dog sits next to me, I can wear sweats and slippers and no one is going to care. So it does have its perks. If it weren't for those darn things called bills . . . why does everything have to be so hard financially these days anyway? I know its not just us - its all over these days.
OK - I didn't intend to start rambling about jobs and money. Sorry about that. Other things I have been busy doing this week include the new Stories In Hand class with Jessica Sprague. She is one amazingly talented lady. This class is so cool. I spent Monday and Tuesday putting a cute little book together with ideas on gathering stories - stories about life, family, and other things in between. I have to say when I first started reading all the prompts in the Roots section I started to worry a bit. My childhood was not a bed of roses. I saw all the questions and thought - do I really WANT to remember all that? haha But I think there are some stories that I will want to document for my kids to read someday. Now that most of my older relatives are gone, I have very few people who can help me learn more about my parents and what their lives were like as kids. It would be interesting to know these things and now I may never know. So this class will help me document things so that my own kids will have at least some things that they will know about me when I was little! For all of you who are taking the class too - I hope you come up with some fun stories to share with your families as well! OK - enough rambling for one day - its getting late and I am tired! I hope you all have a great weekend. I sure intend to!!! Talk to you soon!

Some projects to share!

2008-11-09T10:20:00.005-06:00

OK - it has taken me a long time to finally finish my week in the life project with Ali Edwards! I FINALLY got it done! I still think it is a bit plain - I may still add some things to it later but for now, I am calling it done! I took pictures on the week I lost my job - how ironic, huh! But I figured I might as well document it - it WAS part of the week, right? I used my Bind It All to make the little book, and bought the 6" bind it all chipboard covers from Hobby Lobby for the outsides of the book. The inside pages are all made of chipboard as well - just some cheap chipboard I bought at Office Depot. I think they are called report covers or something like that. I used Basic Grey paper and chipboard numbers for the cover, and used a Prima flower and a clock center that I bought last year at CKC for the front cover. Other things on the book included Doodlebug rub ons, lots of cats eye ink, a brown sharpie and Storybook Cricut cartridge. I covered the inside pages with craft paper to match the covers better. I took some of my favorite pictures from the week and did a collage of them so that I could include as many as possible in the book. Oh - and before I forget to mention this - I used some Glimmer Mist on the outside cover to make it a little sparkly. That was the first time I had ever tried this - it gave it a neat effect. This will be fun to look at years down the road! I also wanted to share with you a LO I did this week while I was off! I took the picture a while ago - it is of my dog taking a nap in my new scraproom. The title says "What I Love Most About My New Scraproom!". I did this LO because since I moved my scraproom upstairs into my daughter's old room, she now stays in there with me when I scrap. When I had my room in the basement, she never stayed down there with me. I love that she now keeps me company! I used the new Bazzill swiss dots paper on the LO - I love that paper - its so pretty! Other products used are: Thickers letters, brown cardstock for scalloped frame around photo, Summer Driggs digital frame around photo, Heidi Swapp heart, Cats Eye ink, Doodlebug double sided sticky heart with Doodlebug glitter (yellow heart), Bazzill stitch template and floss, transparency for journaling and strip at bottom of title, and some letter stickers for the word "most". The scallop around the photo was cut with my Threading Waters punch - I just didn't show the holes in it.
Thanks for stopping by today - have a great Sunday! Talk to you soon!

Steph

New banner

2008-11-08T19:57:00.005-06:00

Like my new banner? I made it with a free kit I downloaded from Shabby Princess today! (the Harvest Spice kit). The ribbon is from Michelle Coleman with Little Dreamer Designs. I love digital stuff but I find that it takes me FOREVER to pick out what I want to use - I think paper and glue is a lot easier for me to work with! Are you all having a good weekend? I spent most of today cleaning up my scraproom and re-arranging furniture in it! It is a very tiny room and now has become my office as well as my scraproom. That meant I had to find space in that tiny room for another DESK. It barely had room for one! My current desk is not a good desk for me to type on because a) it has no keyboard tray and b) I couldn't put my big old clunky monitor on it because it would probably break the glass top! (and, remember - I didn't actually get a MONITOR with my work computer - so I dug up an old one in the basement!!!) So I bought the cheapest desk I could find - $39.99 from K-Mart! It is cheap and tiny. Just what I wanted! I'd love to invest in a flat screen monitor next . . . I will add that to my list of wants. It is growing daily. LOL Besides cleaning today, I also f0und out that I won something!!! Last night my daughter and I went to the Sangamon. Co. Medical Society Holiday Boutique and I found out today I won the door prize! My neighbor gave me two tickets to it because she is a member of the society. They had all sorts of cool things for sale as well as some free food. It was a fun time, and I was super shocked that I actually won the door prize! It is a Department 56 santa! Here is a pic of it.

I think thats all I have to share with you right now - not much else is going on around here! Its sad to say that it is only 8:20 and I am already sleepy. I can't get use to this time change yet. I sure wish the time would just stay the same year round! Sweet dreams to you all! Talk to you soon!