My parents, last Christmas

I did a challenge LO for MyDigiStyle... at least I tried, haha. NOT the best but I did it! These are my parents who live in Tucson. Last year for Christmas/New Years we got to go visit them in warm and sunny Arizona. I have to say I'd LOVE to NOT have snow for Christmas every year! Anyway, I'm going to try to redo this one later... I think the colors are in the wrong spot or SOMETHING, huh? Ah well.... next time...

Kit used is AtticBox2 by MyDigiStyle
Click picture for larger view

Not much to talk about really. My migraines are still persistent... almost daily. I'm still hibernating because the groundhog said winter would still be here until the middle of March. It snowed today and more is expected on Thursday, ughhhhh! I can't wait until I get to put my pool back up and can open the windows!

What a week... and a LO

It's been a lonnnnngggggg week! It started out leaving a comment on someone's blog.... and I'm NOT blaming the blogger or the blogsite! My computer CROAKED... literally. It made this deep raaaaabbb sound and then nothing... not even the blue screen of death... just DARK! Okay, panic set in immediately, I admit. After freaking out a few minutes (not a pretty sight), I took a deep breath and thought... just thought for a little while. So I decided to unplug the dang thing from the power strip and reboot (hopefully). Lucky for me, it started back up again but not without dumping a whole lot of my main hard drive... the one with Windows on it, grrrrr. Thankfully, Windows wasn't corrupted but tons of other programs were just gone! It's taken pretty much all week to get my email up and running, my graphics progs reinstalled (along with a gazillion plugins and all that goes with it), AND I even put Turbo Tax back on so I can now RE-finish my taxes! I'm not sure what made it make such funny noises when it died but I'm glad it wasn't TOO major. The only hardware I had to replace was the CD/DVD burner.... wondering if that could have caused the problem AND the noise?! Fifty-five dollars is a much better than having to buy a new computer!

So I'm back... finally. I've been using hubby's computer with Windows ME on it, ughhhh, but only to try to keep some of my mailboxes from exploding. His computer feels like a dinosaur to me, haha... and it was MINE at one time long ago....

Here's something I played around with right after I reinstalled PSP and PS. It didn't turn out like I wanted it to but... what can I say. This is princess Emma, my granddaughter, wishing she could go out and play. Click on the image to see it larger.

Kit's used: Darling Diva & Sacred Spring by S.J. Wright Creations
Paper Curls by Pineapple Plantation Designs
Commercial Use overlay by SweetMade
Fonts used: A&S Black Swan & MC Capone Outline

Well, I'm off to babysit the grandkids. Tomorrow I'll be spending the day doing the finishing touches to rebuilding my hard drive.... crossing my fingers that there aren't any more frogs haning out in my computer!

Yet ANOTHER LO!

This one is a quicky... meaning I did it in less than an 2 hours, LOL. I joined a new group about a month ago called Digital Scrap Garden and, though I haven't done any of the challenges yet, I DID play around with their Download-a-Day kit. Here's what I came up with from the few days I've collected so far. This is Tayli... again... my granddaughter. As usual, if you want to see it larger, just click on the picture.

Credits:
Horse N Love kit by Karen Wallace
AlphaRed by digiscrap.ch

NOW, I'm going to watch TV... Ghost Hunters is on!!!

Another challenge DONE

This took me FOREVER and a day to finish! I really need to get to learning Photoshop CS3 because PSP is sooooo much of a memory hog! I did a scraplift challenge over at Boo's Blossoms. The kit is really cute and they supplied FREE for doing this challenge! ANYway.... this is the LO I used to scraplift by Lois:



... and this is what I came up with... these are all my grandkids:

click image for larger view

Credits:
Blossoms Kit by Booland Designs
Lois's awesome LO for scraplifting

*****

Which reminds me! You really need to visit Booland Designs. She's having a 100 freebies giveaway!!!! It's day 4 now but there are plenty more to go!

Not much else going on here. I'm still trying to recover from all the COLD and the SNOW we've been getting here in Chicagoland! It seems like every other day we get a few more inches... grrrrr. YES, I've been hibernating! I think I'll go hide under my comforter now and try to stay WARM... ciao!

SDK Challenge... did it but...

Well, I did this for a challenge at Scrappin Digi Kreations but I don't have permissions to upload to the gallery... ah well. I'm still going to share here. Love the kit they gave to work with!! Thanks for looking.

---Edit--- I finally got it uploaded to the gallery, woohoo!

Click HERE for larger image

Challenge Kit by June Schutrups - Cen's Stuff
Template used is kb-bling-template by Kimb's Designs (some modifications)
Fonts Used:
Mayuge (no TOU with font) can be found at fonts101
Tuna and Hot Dog on Rye by Kimberly Geswein and can be found at Dafont

... just me

I took a personality test online. Can't you tell? Not much to say about that, hmmm.


My Personality

Neuroticism	58
Extraversion	77
Openness to Experience	66
Agreeableness	40
Conscientiousness	43

You rarely get angry and it takes a lot to make you angry, however you experience panic, confusion, and helplessness when under pressure or stress. You are not prone to spells of energetic high spirits. You tend not to express your emotions openly and are sometimes not even aware of your own feelings. You do not enjoy confrontation, but you will stand up for yourself or push your point if you feel it is important, however you believe that a certain amount of deception in social relationships is necessary. You are guarded in new relationships and less willing to openly reveal the whole truth about yourself. Mostly you work towards achieving your best, although in some areas you are content just to get the job done.

Take a Personality Test now or view the full Personality Report.

This is sooo cool!

You have to watch this! A group from New York called Improv Everywhere went to Grand Central Station and did this. I would have stopped to watch too! You can read more about this video and the group HERE. They even had a No Pants 2K8 prank going on in January, but I'm not posting here, haha. If you want to check out that video on YouTube, go HERE.

Super Bowl Commercials...

I ONLY watched the commercials for the Super Bowl yesterday so I missed the exciting ending. BUT I watched all the commercials!!! My quarterly picks:

:::::: Edited to delete commercials... ::::::
:::::: they're not on the website anymore ::::::
:::::: and it was just taking up space here, haha ::::::

Just playing... again

Another quickie. I saw a challenge with a freebie mini-kit at DigitalArts cafe and just HAD to try it. The kit is called Happily Ever After and here's what I came up with. Go visit if you'd like to try. You still have a little time left to get more of the kit by trying. This is Tayli, one of my granddaughters, playing in the snow.

Click the image for a larger view

Snow... and finally Mom's gift

Not much today. It's going to be a looooooonnnnngggg day! Yesterday it started snowing in the late afternoon and JUST stopped a little while ago. We only got about 8 inches of snow but the end of our driveway had PILES from the snowplows. It was over my knees and that was with the snowplow only plowing the MIDDLE of our road! Listening to WGN Chicago News, I heard we're in for a little more too! Needless to say, WGN reported 980 school closings in the Chicago area. This is a picture from my front window. See that red flag behind the bird feeder? That flag is 4 feet tall and there's a fire hydrant under all that snow! Thank goodness next Wednesday is supposed to be 45 degrees (F)... the snow might just go away before out next storm.


I've been wanting to post this picture forever (since Christmas at least) but I JUST got this off of my camera card. This was a gift from Mom.... she's a super-duper crafter... and had to share!!! The basket isn't part of the gift but it IS from my mom! She made me a tissue box and coaster set. Aren't they cute??? She is sooo creative when it comes to plastic canvas. Heck, she's creative in everything! You should see the house during Christmastime! Every corner of the house was decorated including bathrooms and even a "village" setup in the spare bathroom.... like walking into a craft show -slash- museum. So gorgeous. I'll have to see if I can find some pictures to show of when I visited them in Tucson last January. Oh yeah, the picture~~~


Well, I'm out of here. I have some snow-blowing to do!

Love hearts...

Just a quicky today. I have house cleaning to do... it's way overdue! Anyway, in my blog hopping, I found this website. It makes customized candy hearts. YES, I'm easily amused! Below is what I made and HERE is the link to make your own! Quick and easy... totally cheesey!!!!

Grandkids...

The damn cat (we call her Mama) woke me up at 4:30 this morning!!! I swear, the older she gets, the more NEEDY she is! She's about 15 years old and does it ever show! She was hungry and thirsty and wanted tons of affection in the wee hours. Of course I pretended to be asleep but she started her kneading on my stomach and meowing VERY loudly. I finally gave in when she started batting at the blinds (they're aluminum) and making such a huge racket that I thought she was going to wake up hubby. We did her morning ritual of getting fed, lapping up a half bowl of water, massive amounts of getting petted and purring her little heart out, getting brushed, etc, etc. THEN SHE WENT BACK TO SLEEP!!! Meanwhile during all this, I drank a quick ice-coffee (Starbuck Mocha Frappachino, yum) to wake me up, so I couldn't go back to sleep... grrrr. Anway...

... since nobody out there in "blog-land" is usually up that early, I started playing around. I used Kristine's kit "Into The Mystic" again (can you tell I like the kit?) and came up with this 4x6. NOT too happy with it but it's MY grandkids and I love 'em!!! That's Miss Julie (a Packer's fan) on the left, Miss Tayli and Miss Emma (loving sisters) on the right.

Click here to see it larger

Some news.... not good news though.
--- My daughter-in-law, Kim, was recently pregnant. WAS! She lost the baby last week. She was only a few months pregnant but she has a history of this so it was expected (sort of). She's feeling better now, but doesn't want to talk about it. I know for sure that they want ONE more though... sometime in the future ::: sigh :::
--- Also, last week we found out that Miss Julie probably will never be able to get rid of her tracheotomy or her feeding tube. A CT scan and MRI were taken of the brain that takes care of those functions and they're white. Which means those functions are getting worse. Nobody knows for sure what will happen. Julie is a miracle baby and has proven everybody wrong so far!!!

Not much else to say. It's going to be one of those days.

Just playin'... again

Well, it's 11 days to my 49th birthday. I totally refuse to have another birthday until after I'm retirement age, LOL. It's still hard for me to accept that I'm this old! I think my kids and grandkids help me to feel still a bit young. I ran out of blogthing quizzes, LOL. So I went to the mySpace quizzes! I love the Happy Bunny quiz... I love these psycho critters!

I am an Aquarian! And this is soooo me!

What Does Your Birth Month Reveal About You? February Abstract thoughts. Loves reality and abstract. Intelligent and clever. Changing personality. Attractive. Sexy. Temperamental. Quiet, shy and humble. Honest and loyal. Determined to reach goals. Loves freedom. Rebellious when restricted. Loves aggressiveness. Too sensitive and easily hurt. Gets angry really easily but does not show it. Dislike unnecessary things. Loves making friends but rarely shows it. Daring and stubborn. Ambitious. Realizing dreams and hopes. Sharp. Loves entertainment and leisure. Romantic on the inside not outside. Superstitious and ludicrous. Spendthrift. Tries to learn to show emotions.

What HAPPY BUNNY are u? cute but psycho ur crazy, and hott

Talking cats

LOL!!! Talking cats! What will they think of next?

NEW HEADER... cats.. and email

I got a new header!!!! Woohoo!!!! I was getting sooo sick of the other one. The awesome kit I used is called Into the Mystic by Kristine over at WenchGrafix. You gotta go check out her blog! She has some links to other creations with this gorgeous kit.

Well, not much news besides it's COLD outside. The thermometer says it's minus 5 degrees outside... that's fahrenheit!!! I'm nice and warm because I'm NOT going outside today, but I worry about all the stray animals in our area. This past summer, he made a "kitty door" on the garage just for this reason. It's only a small hole, 8in. x 8in. maybe in the side of the garage so stray cats have somewhere to get protection from the weather. Currently, I think there's five "wild" cats staying in there... poor babies. I've tried to so hard to find homes for them but a few are so hard to catch that I just let them be. Of course we keep a bowl of dry food for them, so I would think I'm attracting them here! We've actually been lucky. Only once we got a raccoon, but the cats ganged up on it and scared it away. HA! Is there anyone in the Chicagoland area willing to take on a born-in-the-wild cat with no shots and all? I have a few... you just need to catch them! We don't have the trap-neuter-release program around here. Anyway, I hope they all survive this terrible cold. The wind is supposed to pick up soon and that will make things worse.


Today, my goal is to go through my mail BEFORE I check out the blogs... which can sometimes take a whole day, haha. I have over 800 emails I've neglected for TOO long. I'm thinking maybe I should drop a couple YahooGroups!!! Maybe......

Ciao for now!

Hahaha, and another Blogthing

Like, ya know, oh my gawd!!!! I have Paris Hilton on my playlist!!! Hahahahaha... bwaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhahahaaaaaa!!!!!! Here's the video, though I can't imagine anyone wanting to watch it, haha. SORRY, I just HAD to!

Okay, now THIS is scary. I'm NOT voting for the top two on this list!!!!! And I've never heard of most of the others! I'm thinking that I better hurry up and decide if I'm actually going to vote!

Who You Should Vote For

Barack Obama: 63% Hillary Clinton: 56% Mike Gravel: 56% John Edwards: 50% Dennis Kucinich: 44% John McCain: 44% Ron Paul: 44% Rudy Giuliani: 38% Mike Huckabee: 31% Mitt Romney: 31% Who you agree with on the war in Iraq: Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain and Mitt Romney Who you agree with on the economy: Mike Gravel Who you agree with on health care: Barack Obama Who you agree with on taxes: Mike Gravel and Mike Huckabee Who you agree with on abortion: Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, and Rudy Giuliani Who you agree with on gay rights: Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, and Barack Obama

Who Should You Vote For?

G'nite!

I have a dream *RANTING* and new Wacom

I have a dream...

Today is Martin Luther King Day... a very important day in America's history. I think if Mr. King were alive today, he'd be proud of the changes he inspired in this country. There is no more segregation, it's against the law to fire someone from a job because of race, creed, color, gender (etc, etc), and there are people of every color in every job. COLOR is no longer an issue... but you'd never know that from listening to people like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. I can't say that prejudice is gone... it's still very much alive, largely because of the rants of people just as Mr. Jackson. What makes it OKAY for an African American to kill his wife (as in the OJ Simpson case) while there are millions of Caucasians (and other "colors"!) in prison for doing the same thing? Shouldn't that be a MURDER thing, not a BLACK thing? Why is it OKAY to have a United Negro College Fund while it is against the law to have a WHITE college fund (that would be prejudice)? Why do they still call it the United NEGRO College Fund when it's "prejudiced" to call an African American a NEGRO? Stupid things like this keep prejudice alive, in my opinion. But then, who am I? I'm a white middle-class person with European background who's lived in the Chicago suburbs her whole life. I don't see the day to day hardships that some ethnic groups have to go through. Speaking of ethnic groups, WHY ARE THERE STILL ETHNIC GROUPS if we are striving for equality and non-prejudice???

These questions baffle me and of course, these are only MY rantings. I am NOT a prejudice person. You can ask my BLACK friend (she's from Jamaica and has asked NOT to be called African American). You can ask my AFRICAN AMERICAN friends, my INDIAN friends, my MEXICAN and PUERTO RICAN friends, my JEWISH friends, my BOSNIAN friend (though Bosnia is no more), my ITALIAN and Pakistani friends, my friends who claim no ethicity and too many more to think of right now... who are all my AMERICAN friends. When I talk to these people, I don't think to myself that I'm addressing any special ethnic group. I've never asked where they come from or why. They are my friends! And I'm not alone in this. By the way, ALL of my friends from other countries have learned English.

This morning I was reading in the newspaper about other local "dreams" which now have branched out to the ILLEGAL ALIENS! Okay, now it's being pushed too far. This is ONLY my opinion. I am still trying to figure out what RIGHTS these ILLEGAL people seem to think they have. After all, this is America and OUR constitution doesn't cover other countries, right? They have their own rules and regulations. Why do people who are here ILLEGALLY think that America owes them anything(???) like food stamps, social security, and health care to name a few? Sometimes I wonder if anybody realizes that issues like this cost our country a fortune every day. If I went to another country, would they support me just because?? I think not.

I have a dream..... My dream is that this country will one day OUTLAW frivolous law suits... those really piss me off... but that's another huge rant. My dream is that NOBODY will have to be put into an ethnic group.... who cares anymore? We're all American. My dream is that this country will one day be as prosperous as it used to be because of hard work and not whining about equality... we already ARE equal so shut up. My dream is.... world peace! Hahahaha, I had to throw that one in to let myself lighten up.

Anyway, that's my rant. So sorry, but I got angry reading about other dreams this morning. My dream is to visit France one day, but that's all it is... a dream, ha! GET ME OFF THIS SUBJECT!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!

Okay :::deep breath::: on a lighter note, I GOT A WACOM TABLET last night!!!! It's a small Wacom, a starter, but I love it! I was only shopping for a new mouse (mine died) but went a little overboard, haha. I can hear my mom now saying "What the heck is that?". Well, Mom, it's like a mouse but you use a "pen" for a pointer instead.

It's used mostly for graphic design, drawing and the likes. I've wanted one forever and now, thanks to the Christmas money (THANK YOU!), I now have one! Woohoo! Guess what I'll be doing today. YEP, trying to figure out how it works. I can't wait! Maybe my "creative juices" will show up again.... I've been in a huge slump in that department lately. Cya for now!!!!

Cats... gotta love 'em

They say NO news can be GOOD news, right? Well, today is one of those days. I LOVE cats so I thought I'd share an email I received today.

Signs You Are Having A Bad Day

1. You woke up in a strange place


2. You had trouble getting out of bed


3. You washed your hair and couldn't do a thing with it


4. You feel like you have a hangover and you weren't even drinking last night


5. Your new diet doesn't seem to be working


6. You pulled a muscle when you tried to exercise


7. Your new hat looked better on you at the store


8. Your old hat doesn't seem quite right either


9. The dry cleaners shrunk your favorite outfit


10. You keep losing things


11. You have a stiff neck


12. You feel like you're in the wrong place at the wrong time


13. The boss chewed you out at work


14. You got caught in the rain at lunchtime


15. The lunch you had didn't seem to agree with you


16. You get no respect


17. You feel trapped


18. Traffic on the way home was brutal


19. Uninvited guests showed up at dinnertime


20. Dinner left you feeling a bit queasy


21. You think you're coming down with the flu


22. You're alone in the house at night and you hear a noise in the basement


Have a Purrfect Day!

It's been almost a week?

... jeez, where has the time gone? Hmmm, I guess I've been REALLY busy clearing off my hard drive. Over 30 DVDs burned of "stuff" (tags, graphics, tons of scrap stuff, fonts, tubes, etc, etc) have come off since Monday. HOORAY, I have more room to COLLECT now, haha! Backaches, headaches, eye strain, carpal tunnel, you name it, I've gotten it this week! And of course hubby was a bit IRKED that he couldn't get on my computer for things he wanted to do, LOL.

Of course, I did my daily BLOG reading. I was HONORED by Kristine at WenchdGrafix Designs (yep she MOVED to a bigger/better site... reminding myself to add the link to my blog favs on the left!). You can read it HERE. I'm number 8. Of course I had to read them all... she's surrounded by awesome people! She's SUCH a sweetie, so funny and did I ever mention TALENTED? She's building an AWESOME freebie kit that one day SOON I'll be making a new header with. I'm so sick of the one I have, ugh!

So far today I've done almost absolutely NOTHING. Well, I can't say that because laundry is close to being done. But that practically does itself with an hour wait between loads. I DID check out Blogthings today and found this:

You are a Hippie

You are a total hippie. While you may not wear birks or smell of incense, you have the soul of a hippie. You don't trust authority, and you do as you please. You're willing to take a stand, even when what you believe isn't popular. You like to experiment with ideas, lifestyles, and different subcultures. You always gravitate toward what's radical and subversive. Normal, mainstream culture doesn't really resonate with you.

Are You a Hippie?

Mom and dad, does this explain a bit about WHY I was such a rebel as a kid? Haha.

Well, I'm outta here. I still have about 3 DVDs to burn and I'm home free for a few months! Ciao for now!

I love this tag!

Oh my goodness... I love this tag! This woman is the one that first "turned me on" to scrapping. I am sooooo envious of her designs! Anyway, I just got this one today and HAD to show it off. Her always list is Vanilla's Tags at YahooGroups in case you want to check it out! It's a VERY low volume group sending a time or three a month when she feels creative. Isn't it gorgeous!? Gotta run... I have a date with the chiropracter!