Brrrrrrr......!!!

Is it cold where you are? It is where I am! Temperatures dipping in the single digits or negative numbers overnight. Thank goodness we have 2 woodstoves to help with keeping our heating bills somewhat in check & a dedicated hubby that makes sure we have plenty of wood to burn each winter. He makes sure there is a fire in one, if not both stoves, when I wake up in the morning.

I've been keeping pretty busy this winter with my Design Team projects for The Memory Zone scrapbook store. Thank goodness I have that motivator to get me moving along on projects that I should get done. I finished a cute picture frame today that will be in my gallery on their website in a few days & IRL at the store after 2/2/08. I managed to get all my Valentine projects completed for the last meeting in time! I didn't care for the first card I made, but turned it in anyway. Wouldn't you know, I came across some sticker labels that I also had gotten from the DT mtg, but forgot I had them. So I ended up making another card from them & a card from my left over scraps of the other stuff I was given. I like that card the best, maybe because it's different than most. I like different ~ not weird different, COOL different!

If you get a few minutes, check out the link to my Design Team Gallery over on the side bar. While you're there, check out the other DT members & other members for some fantastic inspiration! You're sure to find SOMETHING!!

Officially A Design Team Member!

Well, it's official. I am a Design Team member of The Memory Zone (TMZ) scrapbook store here in Plymouth! We had out first meeting on 1/14/08 at the store. I got to meet all the ladies that I've chatted with on the store's message board. It's so great to put faces with names, although Charity's was easy, since she has hers as her avatar. I love the perspective of it too!

We were broken down into two groups with Rhonda being the leader of the group I'm in, & Barb was chosen as our lead assistant. We were given a lot of projects to get us going on, so I'm hoping I can be creative enough & keep up! It's still pretty intimidating for me at this point. We have a meeting twice a month & probably a DT crop each month, as well. I had to go out get myself a decent planner for this as I think I'm going to need it. LOL Organization is NOT my strong point, unless it's my paid job! Then I can kick some organizational @ss! I just CHOOSE not to in my home life.

Fortunately, Rhonda has let me off pretty easy with doing projects that are more of my strong points. No page layouts yet - thanks goodness! I get to do more paper crafting & altering! YAY!!! IF I were smart (ha ha ha ha!), I would have taken my camera & started keeping track of my experience along the way.

I have most of my projects done for the next meeting, which is just a week after the first meeting, but I still need to work on the card part of the assignment yet. I hope I can make it work a little easier than the projects! I so hope they like what I came up with...that's my biggest fear ~ that they won't like them.

So long for now, gotta get some info to my leader! I almost forgot!

Here is another page I did with my new Qwikutz lettering font called Journal. Since this photo was taken, I've added purple letters over the gold ones to help it stand out a little more & give it some dimension.




I had taken this page class at The Memory Zone Scrapbook store here in Plymouth. I finally found pictures to fill the page with & added the flowers, buttons, brads & the doodling around the title afterwards. I didn't realize it at the time, but my printer was running low on blue ink, so the pictures are different hues, but I think it looks kinda cool!




This is a card that I made like the sketch I made for KT Crafts newletter this week. It was my 2nd submission after finding out my original design had already been done for the previous newsletter (which I hadn't gotten).




Close-up of the spirelli thread work around the Basic Grey brand of die cut.




A Valentine card I made from a sketch that I was asked to do for KT Crafts newsletter, but I knixed it after realizing it looked too similar to the one that had been done by Glee, for the previous newsletter that I hadn't gotten.




A page I just did with a picture of Brooke looking at the lights on our tree from last year.




Jordan's Freshman year football pictures

Flooding In Plymouth

Below are some pictures of the flooding that has occurred in our little town of Plymouth due to the rise of the Yellow River from all the melting snow & heavy rain in less than a week. These pictures were taken today (Thurs.-1/10/08)& they're telling us that the river won't even reach it's crest until sometime on Friday. So, it looks like one more day of rising waters for the poor people!

Note the irony in the street sign that's at the intersection of where the flooding begins.


This is a little bit of a closer shot of that flooding.


These next pictures are from a little further south of town. It's also a detouring street because of flooding up the road.






I have been to garage sales at the house at the end of this "street."

2008 Resolution...

Well, it's now 2008! Have you've made some resolutions for the new year? I've only made one that I intend to stick with & that's to try to get more organized. However, I should consider several other resolutions, but this one is already HUGE to begin with! LOL We started this mission in 2007 by getting rid of stuff in garage sales. We had 5 sales last summer & made a good dent in the excess, not to mention a good chunk of extra cash! (always a good incentive!) We have this huge room upstairs that we refer to as the "Yellow Room" because of the very ugly yellow shag carpet & the yellowish wallpaper, that's falling off the walls. We use it for storage because our house has no attic or basement & the garage is too small to be useful for any kind of extra storage. The yellow room is also where I have my scrap space & a craft space. I plan on getting rid of quite a bit of my crafting stuff because I don't plan on using many of the items & would like to move my computer to that area in the near future. This will also free up a large corner in Brooke's bedroom, as well. I also need to move my treadmill upstairs too. Nothing like doing a little stairstepping as a warm-up for walking. I'll be pooped before I even get there! LOL-JK (sorta)

We did make a major update on our Master Bedroom this fall, I am so happy to say. It's not totally done though, as we're going to get new furniture soon, so I have no drapes or new bedding yet & some of the old furniture is still being used in the meantime. I will post the before/after shots when we get that final stage & before it gets messy again! Just a little visual for you to imagine, if you will, an OLD, dingy, ORANGE, shag carpet & only 2 little reading lamps mounted to one wall! I'm sure the carpet is original to the house when it was built in 1978! Wait until you see the pictures of the laundry room carpet ~ it's shagadelic baby!! THAT'S the next project & Alan knows it's supposed to be too.

I am currently working on a challenge from to do a Scrapbook layout a day for the month of January on BigPicturescrapbooking.com