On a lighter note

I might as well get some Sweet Rewards points while I'm blogging :) Hi Meg! Love ya!

What Your These Fireworks Say About You

You are chaotic, inspired, and very creative. You're so creative, people don't really recognize your creativity. What's expressive for you sometimes looks like a mess. But you don't really care... you enjoy making your messes!

The Fireworks Test

And Mimi wanted to know about summer jobs :)
I worked at the Gap Outlet in the huge outlet mall in our town. I started off as just a puny sales associate, but one super busy saturday when the line was insane they threw me on register. I remember loving it because I got to ring next to my girlfriend Christie, and she taught me the ropes. I picked that up pretty quickly and within a few months they made me a lead cashier. That meant that on closing nights, I had to count out 14 registers. BY MYSELF! Helloooooo responsibility! I did that all through senior year of high school too. When I came back to work after my freshman year of college, I decided to work in merchandising (cuz, you know, why not). That meant working 6am-3pm 5 or 6 days a week. Getting up early was AWFUL, but I again got to work with Christie (I love that girl), and some other awesome people, including my boyfriend that summer, Jesse, lol. We had a LOT of fun there. We had a lot of not fun times there too, but overall I have nothing but good memories of my times there :)

Have a happy hump day :)

I heart Sweet Reward Points

And because I love them so much, here are the 4 blog posts for the month of June. Sorry Meg :p

5/30 - Dream Vacation
I want to travel the whole world, but realistically I doubt that'll be possible. Instead, we're hoping to go on a ridiculous honeymoon. We're all about traveling before we have kids and can't. We're hoping to take 2 weeks or so, and go to New Zealand and Australia. We want to get our dive certs so we can dive on the great barrier reef. I think that would be SO amazing. No idea yet if that'll even be possible, but hey, a girl can dream right? :)

6/5 - Nerd Score.
This should be good :p



6/12 - Summer Activities
I love going out to western MD and heading over to Jordan's family friends place. They have a house on Deep Creek Lake, and let us use the docks anytime we want. I get to tan, Jordan can play on the jet ski's, and Tiger gets to swim swim swim! If we're headed to NY, that means a trip to the Cohen's pool is usually in order. Everyone hangs out and talks, Don floats around in the chair with his cigar, we listen to the Yankee game, and then usually eat a TON! If we're staying home, we tend not to leave the house. We end up traveling so much throughout the year that staying home means just that. I scrap, Jordan plays his video games, we watch movies, we just chill and vege out. So relaxing. Hopefully we'll get some trees planted in the backyard soon and then I can get a hammock so I can relax and read in the shade. :)

6/19 - What your fridge says about you
Not very accurate I don't think, but still interesting :p

What Your Fridge Says About You

You like to be surrounded by things you love. You aren't exactly greedy, but you can be materialistic at times. You tend to be a fairly thrifty person. You splurge occasionally, but you're mostly a saver. You don't tend to be a very adventurous person, but you do surprise everyone now and then. You have a bit of a wild side. You try to be responsible, but you don't always succeed. Your heart is in the right place though. You are likely single - and spending many nights alone at home.

What Do the Contents of Your Refrigerator Say About You?

I think that is all. Maybe I'll get my 40% off after all! :)

Now that's impressive.

I can't believe I went 2 whole months without posting. Man, I am NOT good at blogging, LOL! But I think I've come up with a better way to get back into it. But I can't share cuz I haven't worked it all out yet. So yea. You must wait.

In the best news ever, I found my wedding dress. I'm completely in love with, and obsessed with it, which I think is probably a good sign. I think people will think that it's very "me", but will also be very pleasantly surprised. I made a LO for it for the wedding album, but I can't share it here on the off chance that Jordan will read this blog (I don't know if he actually does or not, lol). But if you're feelin frisky, you can always go check out my galleries and find it :)

In the saddest news ever, we lost our family dog on friday. Scooby was so very old, especially for a large breed dog. 14 years old for a Greyhound is probably similar to being 100. His arthritis kept getting worse, and last week he stopped eating for a few days. Anytime Scooby doesn't eat, it's a major problem. He was the biggest food hound you've ever met in your life, so for him to not eat means something is really wrong wtih him. He didn't get his meds for 3 days, so his arthritis flared up horribly. He did a little better friday morning, but in the end, he would never really get any better. He would only get worse and his suffering would be prolonged. So it was decided that we needed to let him go. It was probably the hardest thing ever for us to do, but we know it was the RIGHT thing to do, and that's what matters most. He's not in pain anymore, he's suffering has ended, and he's free. He's up there right now looking down at us as happy as can be I bet. He led the best life ever for 12 good years, what more could you ask for?! Friday was really hard but I'm ok with it all now. Just one of those things where you think you're ok with something, and you think you've come to terms with it, and then it actually comes, and you're not ok with it because you can't believe that he's going to be gone and you never get to see him again. But I will see him again.
Ok, enough rambling. Here's a LO I made on friday night to help cope with it all. I really love how it turned out.


My boss is on vacation this week, and we're only working 3 days, and tomorrow I'm out on inspections. Thank goodness it's an easy week. The past few have been a combination of boring and obnoxious. Working for the state seems to have more cons than pros. They drive me INSANE. They always want something different, and then are bitter when you didn't even know they wanted that, because they never told you, and then they get mad at your for being "behind schedule". The politics behind it all drive me insane. The only plus side to this, is that I'm learning a TON, and even getting to do my own design work. I check almost everything with my boss, but it's going to be really cool when I can say I designed this bridge replacement in it's entirety, by myself. (Yes, I will tell you where it is so you can avoid driving over it, Ha, Ha, Ha.)

I'm going to post again in a last ditch effort to get enough rewards points for a 40% discount at SSD. My mojo went MIA a few times this month, so I'm much farther away then I usually am. Of course I didn't get to scrap on saturday, or sunday, but whatever. I'll take 30%, but that 40% is just too sweet to miss out on :)

I think that's it. I'm feeling super sleepy today so I'm gonna go get some more tea.
Have a happy monday!

~Col

I'm bored.

So I took some little quizzes, and made a layout. And now I'm sharing, because it's better than writing up a zillion inspection reports.

For one, I'm a pretty ok speller:

Your Spelling is Good

You got 9/10 correct. Your spelling is generally pretty decent. You are prone to a few mistakes, but the mistakes you make are pretty forgivable.

How's Your Spelling?

2, I'm a concrete and sequential thinker (this is dead on, lol, I HATE ambiguity!!)

Your Thinking is Concrete and Sequential

You are precise, orderly, and realistic. You tend to get to the point and get things done. Difficult, detailed work is easy for you. You take things step by step. Time limits aren't a problem for you either. You work well with deadlines. What does drive you crazy is any sort of task that isn't precisely laid out. You don't like anything to be ambiguous. You prefer to deal with the facts at hand.

What Kind of Thinker Are You?

And I'm darn good at spotting famous places from a bird's eye view. 14/16. Damn Bush's ranch (I never get the baseball one right. Ever.)
http://www.guessthespot.com/

Now for some shares.
Here's the LO I did for Kim's goodies last week. I can't remember if I posted it or not. Probably not.


This one I really love. Natali Design and Jofia DeVoe make such wonderful things.


And this is just too fun. Traci teamed up with Gina Miller to make "Tisket a Tasket". SUCH a great kit.

Tiger apparently LOVES orange push pops. She's lucky that Jordan usually eats 2, and shares the last of the second one with her. Hence the orange sherbert on her nose. :)


I suppose I'll go back to writing up reports now.
Have a good day!

TGIF!

Man, for real. TGIF. I'm ready for the weekend, even though it's going to be a tad busy. I'm volunteering tonight and tomorrow at 2 shelter events. I don't really want to go tonight, but I'm going to at least go help with set up and decorations. They need a ton of people later on tonight, so I might just stay home and go to bed early. I'm so tired lately. I have to be up at like 8 tomorrow too, for the other event.

This little quiz is today's "From our blog to yours" from SSD. It was cute, and pretty accurate so I thought I'd post for fun. :)

You Are An ESFJ

The Caregiver You are sympathetic and caring, putting friends and family first. A creature of habit, you prefer routines and have trouble with change. You love being in groups - whether you're helping people or working on a project. You are good at listening, laughing, and bringing out the best in people. In love, you value harmony and mutual understanding. You will apologize or give someone the benefit of the doubt, if it means getting over a fight sooner. At work, you are good at building relationships and connecting with people. You would make a great nurse, social worker, or teacher. How you see yourself: Organized, dependable, co-operative When other people don't get you, they see you as: Opinionated, critical, and know-it-all

What's Your Personality Type?

I've gotten a bunch of LO's done this week, so that's always good. I don't feel so behind on obligations now. I need to make some more little hybrid albums. I think I'm gonna work on that tonight. I want to do one for our Vegas trip, one for our Cabo trip, and maybe one for the FL trip last summer. Maybe I'll get ambitious and do one for hawaii and san fran too, lol. On sunday I'm gonna take a drive (fingers crossed it nice out) out to a scrapbook store. My girl Julie got me a gift certificate to there like a year ago, so I should really go spend it, lol. I'm hoping they'll have some acrylic albums I can play wtih. And some alcohol inks, those look way cool. Once again I've got a million ideas in my head, and not enough time to get them out, lol.

Is it lunch time yet? I'm starving. I think a trip to the NY style deli is in order. I could eat their turkey/bacon/lettuce/tomato/cheese on a toasted egg bagel every day of the week. SO good.

Oh and it's definitely spring. I made my first pitcher of lemonade last night!! This weekend might be ice tea weekend :) I'm hoping to find some plants that do well in the shade and get them planted too. Now it's a mission since Jordan doesn't think I'll do it, lol.

Have a great weekend everyone!!!
~Col

Freebie Template!

I know what you're thinking, "Oh my god! She's blogging 2 days in a row!!" Ca-raaaaaazzzy!!

Well Kim had her big celebration yesterday, and I'm hoping it went well (she might still be recovering, it's rare I blog before her! LOL). But my girl Mikkel started a new blog, and a newsletter, and is awesome. So I hooked her up with a template to give away to her newsletter subscribers. You know what that means right? Right. If you want this:



Then you need to go HERE, to Mikkel's new fantastic blog, and sign up for her newsletter. It'll go out either later today or tomorrow or so. So you might have to exercise some patience. Buuuut it's a pretty sweet template, so it's worth it ;) Plus while you're there, you can download her super cute Birthday cupcake add-on! If you make a LO with it and link it up in the comments by the 28th, you could win a prize!

Ok gotta run. But go!

GO GO GO GO GO!!!!

Go right now to DSO and Kim's store because she is having an amaaaaaaazing sale!! It's her 1 year anniversary of selling at DSO and to celebrate her WHOLE STORE is 60% OFF TODAY ONLY!!!!


I repeat. GO GO GO GO GO!!!! :D The sale is only good TODAY, so hurry up and finish reading, and then scoot over there!

Now, as if that wasn't enough (and we all know Kim, and it isn't! LOL!) She's got 2 fantastic grab bags up too! Both of them are LOADED with more goodies than usual (do I need to repeat myself again? GO!).

There's a commercial use bag:

And a personal use bag:


And as a special treat, if you buy BOTH you get this amazing set of brag book pages Kim's CT put together!! (Well not me, I've got something else up my sleeve now that I have time to breathe, lol!) The brag book pages all coordinate with what's inside the Personal Use Grab Bag.


Phew, all that promoting really takes it out of ya! :P

I've got more to talk about, but for now I'll let you go spend some dough at Kim's store. :)
Have a good day!!

Bad things come in 3's??

Today they did!
So today I walked my 3 miles for training. I decided to do a different route that was more on sidewalks and through the neighborhood. It’s pretty much a 1.5 mi loop on either side of our house. So we head out, and do our thing. I’m about 3/4 mi in when my cell phone rings. Apparently my ipod managed to unlock my cell phone in my sweatshirt pocketand call 911, and when emergency services couldn’t get me on the phone, they hung up and called back. Awesome, now I feel like an asshole. So I hold the phone the rest of the way, despite how uncomfortable that actually is. (note to self, buy a small bag or fanny pack despite how unfashionable said things are.)

As we head back, I get a text message. We’re near a playground, but on the other side of the street, plus a lady wtih a huge english bulldog was walking towards us, so I put Tiger in a sit (which she did oh so nicely). No biggie right? I answer the text, look up, and see a small child waddling across the street towards. OMG! AND to top it off, there’s a car coming way to fast down the road. Holy f@$*. Luckily the mom was already making her way over to the little boy, who was staring at Tiger saying "woofie", and the car slowed down. So that car passes, and I’m like hey little guy why don’t you come over here, while trying to restrain Tiger from jumping at him to gives him kisses (she's not so good wtih small children, or children at all for that matter until they hit 11 or 12) OY.

Ok fine. So we get back to the main road we live off of, and I see a bunch of dogs in neighboring yards running along the fences playing. Ok cool. I’ll let Tiger get a few sniffs in, see what’s up, but then we’re on our way. The big fluffy dog (looked like a collie maybe? it was far away) goes up the deck and back inside. So there’s a little fluffy dog running back and forth along the fence. It was barking, but it was small and moving quickly, so I couldn't really get a good look at it. It finds a spot where the wood planks are more separated, and then tries to eat Tiger’s face off. Awesome.

THANKFULLY we made it back to our house, and then on the other 1.5mi loop without any incidents. I was really close to just giving up for the day though, lol.

Oh and I finally figured out why the heck my pedometers weren't working right. Apparently my hips don't move enough, so I have to place it on the outside of my hip. On the side, not in front. Good to know, now that I have 2 since I thought the first one was broken.

Also, anyone have good ideas for protein snacks? That'd be great.

In other news, my scrap-mojo disappeared, but seems to be coming back in spurts. Here are a few LO's to prove it :o)
I love this one. This will always be one of my favorites pictures of my Tigah-now.


This one I'm totally in love with. It came out just as I was envisioning, which RARELY happens for me.


This one is just too cute. I'm loving Janet Phillips templates and grab bags lately. SO useful!! These are 2 of my favorite shots of the monkeys at the Naples Zoo.

This one, is using KimB's latest kit, Unda Da Sea, which is SO friggen FUN! It's a summary of our engagement vacation. I might just print that one and frame it :o)

And one last one. This one was for today's blog post over on the Hawt Mama Team Blog. Alane made a super fun template, and I had "Nicole's Graham" from Traci's "Those We Love: Just the Boys" that I hadn't fully used yet. So I dug out some of the scanned photos and found these 2 of my little brother practicing his golf swing in the front yard. I'm guessing he's 6, but I'm sure when my mom reads this, she'll confirm or correct said statement. :o)


Ok enough visual goodness. Not too much else to report. Easter weekend was good. Jordan's family came down (next year we're just going to have eeeeeeeeveryone come down here for Easter, except ppl will HAVE to get hotel rooms, lol) and I did some shopping/quality time wtih his mom and little sister. Plans are in the works for everyone to come to NY sometime this summer (hopefully June) to do some wedding dress and bridesmaid dress shopping. Tiger is randomly limping, but continues to play like a goofball and run around and go on walks with me, so I'm trying not to stress about it too much. Tomorrow I'm performing an experiment at work. And by experiment, I mean I'm going to wear a pedometer while we go out on inspections, just for kicks to see how far we actually walk (last time it had to have been at least 3miles, possibly more). Thank goodness it's supposed to be almost 60! Going out on inspections will actually be nice for a while, until it gets to be May when the humidity and 90 degree heat sets in, lol.

In other news, Jordan has completely given up on fighting with me over the dining room chairs, and the purchase of a DSLR. I SO win. I'll be going to Ikea this weekend to buy some chairs so that next time we have people over, they won't have to sit on the floor to eat at the coffe table. I'm still going to wait a few weeks on the DSLR, because it makes sense to wait until I can try out hte Canon Rebel XSi (step up from the XTi). Then I'll have seen all my options and can make a good decision. Whether I end up with the Nikon or not doesn't matter. I just don't want to buy the Nikon now, and then try the XSi in a few weeks and like it better.
Oh and I bought a laptop today! Jordan said I should just get it since I want one (want, not need). I think he's tired of me being on his desktop all the time. :oP

I think, that that is all for tonight. I've got a LO to finish for Mikkel, and then I'm going to go lay down and watch some tv. OH! And congratulations to Mikkel, who got engaged on her Disney Cruise last week!!! WEEEEEEEE!!! Another person to talk weddings with! LOL!

Ok, enough! Good night!! :oD

There's no turning back now....

It's official. My friend Charlotte and I are signed up for the Breast Cancer 3Day walk on October 3/4/5 this fall. According to the handy dandy countdown on my personal page, that's just 204 days away. I've got that much time to raise at least $2,200. I'm really hoping I can raise more though! Last year my mom raised $4,500!!

I definitely need to go buy new sneakers to start training in. And I'll want to pick up some 3Day gear. And of course I need to start sending out fundraising letters and emails. I'm hoping that Century will make a donation. I know my family will. I'll be asking everyone to split their donations between me and Charlotte. She's really stressing about having to raise so much money, and I want to help her out as much as I can. It all goes towards the same awesome cause anyway! We started our own team, and several of our friends are going to be crew members for us. We are team Shiver Me Boobies (what? We like pirates!) and we pledge to raise a total of $5,000!! Whoohoo!!

I'm so glad that the weather is warming up! I've been taking Tiger out on little jogging/walking trips. She just loves to be outside, so it's perfect. She keeps me company, and I get the exercise I so desperately need. She'll get even more exercise now that I'm doing this walk!

In other news, my designers have been working over time putting together some really awesome kits!!
Here's a LO I did for my friend Priscilla. She's having her second child soon and feels very guilty that her firsts baby book isn't done yet. So she enlisted the help of some of us to scrap the pics for her. Lucky for her, Julie is putting out 2 glorious kits tomorrow at SSD that were a perfect fit!!


And Traci has an AWESOME collab kit with Dani Mogstad hitting the shelves tomorrow too.


If you were over at Kim's blog today, you saw her awesome kit that should hit the DSO shelves sometime this weekend. I've got a LO 3/4 of the way done with it, it's awesome. I'll probably post the LO next week, but I'll get it to Kim and she'll put it up. :o)

Well, I'm hoping to go home soon and start a wonderfully productive weekend. I hope you all have a great weekend and I'll see you soon!

Fantastic Friday!

Did this week go by super quickly for anyone else? Of course, the whole MONTH that I haven't blogged went by pretty quickly, lol. I kept meaning to post, and then work was super busy, and I don't blog at home usually, etc etc, excuses excuses. I know.

So you know who has the best professional use grab bags on the block right? Of course you do! KimB! Her latest is over at DSO RIGHT NOW, but it's only up until saturday (sunday if you're really lucky) and then all 5 products go into stores regularly priced. At $8 it's a STEAL! So go snag it!

Kim's been giving you sneak peaks all week, so at this point it's not much of a surprise, lol! But I decided to cook up something fun and make a mini kit for all you KimB faithful out there! Everything was created using her grab bag stuff (and a few older professional use things here and there) AND it coordinates with her march color challenge palette! So you can add this one to the huge list of kits you can scoop up this month when you play along over at DSO!

Here ya go! I hope you enjoy it!

In other news, TOOT TOOT!! I was asked to be on Julie Billingsley's (a brand new designer over @ SSD, she was a Sugar Babe first!) Creative Team!! I'm so excited, she has really amazing talent and I'm so excited to showcase her stuff!


I've got a SUPER cute project in the works for this weekend for Traci's Team Blog on monday. Really simple, but hopefully really useful too! She's released some really awesome kits this year, I so look forward to seeing what else she's got under her sleeves! And have you checked out the Hawt Mama Blog?? The girls come up with some really awesome challenges! Definitely gets the scrappin mojo flowin!

In other wonderful news, my good friend Krissie has ventured into the wonderful world of crafting, and gotten totally obsessed as well! She's opened up a jewelry shop over on Etsy, and it's damn good stuff, if I do say so myself! LOL! Look at this amazing neckalce and earring set she made me! For only $25! It's another STEAL I tell you!

Click on the picture to go to the sold item page and see more pictures of my set. Hopefully I snap some pics of myself wearing them and can show them off that way too. It's a really stunning set, I've worn it several times already and always get compliments on it. If you like what you see, send her a message on Etsy (or leave me a comment and I'll get you in touch with her). She will work with you to create a custom piece, or alter a current piece. Anything you like! She's eager to please and she just LOVES what she's doing. So please, go check her out, I'd really appreciate it!

Aside from being super busy at work, and scrapping all the time, and sewing pillow cases and window curtains, and working on baby books for baby shower presents for friends, there's nothing much new going on over here :oP But since I've been busy, I'll leave you all with a few LO's (as always, click to see the credits!).

This I made using Kim's kit from last month, Storybook Romance. SO pretty, I just love it. The pictures are or and from JEssica and David's wedding that we went to down in Disney.

This one I made for one of the challenges for The Amazing Digi-Scrap Race (ADSR). I'm racing with my friend and co-CT member Jenny, who lives out in Colorado. Check out our blinkie over on the side there! I used one of Traci's latest kits, "Paging Miss Bettie". SO friggen awesome. It was an instant favorite.

This one I love. Mikkel Paige (who I am CT-ing for this month as well) has the greatest neutrals paperpack EVER. I find myself going for it all the time. Plus, we finally heard from a friend who is over in Afghanistan. So the timing was kind of sentimental and special. The red, black, and white combo just SCREAMS, NYC to me. :o)

And one last one, cuz it's just too dang cute. From all those 878 pictures I had scanned by Scanmyphotos.com (review post coming soon, 2 thumbs WAY up!!), and Dani Mogstad put out the CUTEST Easter kit ever, Bunny Trail. Me, in my easter bonnet, with my Dad. Circa 1984. :o)

I think that's all for now. Hopefully it won't take me another month to update this thing! LOL! Have a wonderful, wonderful weekend everyone! I hope it warms up soon, I'm so tired of this winter weather nonsense! I want 40's and 50's and SPRING dangit!!