Oh My Stinkin Heck!!!!!

I am having the BEST WEEK EVER!!!

Ok, so Monday blew. I was cranky, I did NOT want to be back at work, and my boss drove me a little insane. Jordan and I were both really snippy with each other too, which always gets to me. I haaaaaaaaaate fighting with him or being mad at him. So Monday was not so hot.

Tuesday was better. I was in a decent mood, I rode the bike for 20 minutes (WOOT!), we had a good dinner. I bought myself a custom font from Darcy Baldwin @ SSD, and I was all excited to get it made. Life was good.

Then came Wednesday. Ooooh wednesday. I have a great group of friends whom I met on myspace a few years back. We've had our fair share of ups and downs and drama-rama's, but there's a core group of us who have always stuck together and been really close. For the past few years we've decided to do a Secret Santa to keep costs down for everyone during the holidays. Well my SS informed me of herself, and she happened to be my good friend Sue who lives like 2 miles away. So instead of buying me something, she gave me the best gift ever. A huge home cooked meal for Jordan and I, delivered to our house!! She made us a delicious oven roasted chicken (which Jordan LOVED so I have to get her recipe, lol) with carrots and potatoes, a salad, biscuits, an appetizer of cheese and crackers, and a dessert of angel food cake with vanilla topping! FREAKING DELICIOUS!
So as if that wasn't enough for the day, Jordan surprised me. He knew I really wanted this dinner to be just for us, to share together, by ourselves. Well his brother was still in the house, but while I was down the hall he set the table in the dining room, turned down off the lights, and lit candles and opened a bottle of wine. It was just exactly what I needed from him amid the stress of life at home as it is currently. He really surprises me sometimes and sweeps me off my feet all over again. We had a wonderful dinner and enjoyed each other's company both during and after :P
As if that wasn't enough to keep me happy for several days, I got the GREATEST PM ever later that night. From Robin Carlton, the owner of Sweet Shoppe Designs, asking me to (finally) be a Hybridbabe!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!! See, I'm even up on the staff page (scroll down, bottom left corner)!! I've talked to Robin a lot in the last year, to find ways to improve myself to try and make the team. SSD is my digi-home, and to be on the site team is truly a dream come true. I've been waiting for almost a year, but it was 100% worth the wait!! The funny thing is that after the last round of rejection, I had decided to "give up" on making the team in a way. Not literally give up, but try to not make it my main focus and just do what I do because I love to do it. Well boy did that pay off! LOL! I'm seriously seriously, SO excited to be an even bigger part of the most amazing digi-scrapping community out there. There are some big things planned for the future and I'm so excited to get to be a part of them from the start!! So Wednesday was amazing. I was literally like a kid on Christmas eve that night. So excited I couldn't sleep!

Thursday was excellent. I got set up in the "behind the scenes" forums at SSD and worked on catching up things. Robin announced that myself and another wonderful scrapper, Jen Tapler, had joined the team, and I basked in the awesomeness that was my life. And then the next most awesome thing happened. Darcy finished my font!!! I consider my handwriting to be a mess. It never looks the same way twice, which makes it rather difficult to create a sample LOL! But Darcy persevered, and here's my font!! I LOVE it!!


Friday was excellent because a)it was friday, but also because of b) we booked the flights for our honeymoon!! WOOT!! We're flying into Paris on the 13th and out of Milan on the 30th. 17 days in Europe!!!! OMG I'm SO freaking excited.

So yea, best freaking week ever. 2009 is off to a very very good start. Fingers crossed it stays that way for a while :)

Ok, time for some 365 photos. I'm almost done with my LO for week 1, which is good since week 2 ended today :P But I'll talk about the LO when I post it.

Day 6 was Tuesday, which was the first day I used the new exercise bike.


Day 7 was Sue's glorious oven roasted chicken.


Day 8 was my debut on the SSD staff page!!!


Day 9 and 10 are still in lightroom. I'll post them soon. :)
I spent a lot of today organizing my scrap space AGAIN. But it's got some fun new things in it thanks to some metal bins from the new tv stand that Jordan didn't want to STAY in the tv stand. So I took them :) Now I have bins for my rub ons, my acrylic stamps, my endless amounts of chipboard, and my card bases! I'm loving the way it's working into my current system so well!! WOOT! Plus, that means my desk is almost cleared off and I can get back to crafting! WEEEEEE! I've got some card sets that I want to make for friends, and that's my first project :)

Ok, enough rambling for tonight. Have a good rest of the weekend everyone!
~Col

Funny stuff and a TOOT TOOT or 3 :)

Hellooooooo everyone! How was your thanksgiving? Do the pants fit again? I think mine finally do :oP

So I was going through the list of SSD challenges, and came across these two blog quizzes. I usually do the quiz and then don't post cuz I'm lazy like that (I mean it entertains me for a good 5 minutes so it's not totally useless, but it isn't exactly earth shattering news either), but these 2 made me laugh, so I'm posting. Plus, I want the sweet rewards points. I want a 40% off coupon dangit! LOL! I'm so close, but getting these calendars done is taking up all my challenge time!

So this is my Pilgrim Name. I don't even know how to take that, lol.

Your Pilgrim Name Is

Desire Mullins

What's Your Pilgrim Name?

And this is what part of Thanksgiving I am. I find this one hysterical, yet appropriate (or at least I hope so :oP)

You Are The Stuffing

You're complicated and complex, yet all your pieces fit together. People miss you if you're gone - but they're not sure why.

What Part of Thanksgiving Are You?

Funnyyyyyyyyyyyy.

So I have some kick ass news too. As I posted a lil while ago, I'm trying to get on some different CT. Whether as guests or permanents or whatever. Kristine was amazing enough to extend me an invite (love ya wench!!), but I want to branch out and spread my wings a bit. I sent in several apps, and got back several rejections, lol. BUT! I also got a guest gig! Whoohoo!! For December I'll be guesting wtih Bree Clarkson at SSD!!! Her templates rock my socks.

Then the other day at DST, someone posted a thread about wanting to be on a CT or get a guest spot, and I mentioned that I was in the same boat that she was. Well I'll be darned if I didn't get 2 more messages from designers asking me to guest for them! So in January I'll be guesting with Kim Hill, and in February I'll be with Mikkel Paige! I'm so excited!!

I still love Kim the best though, don't forget that! :oD

Sooo that's wonderful and exciting. I've gotten a LOT done on my christmas shopping, which is spectacular and ahead of schedule for me, so I'm quite proud. I'm doing a lot of hybrid stuff, and a lot of homemade crafty things to try and save money. Jordan's resigned himself to knowing that I'll spend money for Christmas (like he said, it's what I do) but I do still want to try and save SOME and not go overboard like I always do, lol. So we'll see. That's my mission this month.

Ok, time to eat, and get a whole bunch of digi stuff done. :o)
Have a great day!!

~Col

Blog Break!

Hey everyone! It's wednesday night and I haven't packed a single thing. And Jordan still has 2 loads of laundry to do! LOL! Looks like it's gonna be a late night or a rush job in the morning, lol. We fly outta Philly at 2 and I can't WAIT to get to sunny sunny FL. I'm so ready for a vacation, we haven't been on one since last SEPTEMBER! We went to Vegas (and it was def awesome), but that's a really long time to go without a real vacation (3 day weekends don't count for me).

Anyway, I don't have any new freebies to post, just gonna ramble for a bit :-)

KimB has another fantastical designers tool kit up at DSO called "Age It Quick". It's a set of paper folds and tears and holes and it's awesome! AND it's personal AND commercial use ok!!!! I used it on this LO here which is for the Book of Me chalenge over at DSO (and that fun font is part of the font challenge too!)

Click on the link to go to my DSO gallery and see the credits.
Kim's stuff is always awesome and well worth the purchase so go snag it up now before it's back at regular price!

In other news, my "Penn State Old Main" lo (shown in my previous post) has be nominated as a "Best Layering" LO over at GDS! TOOT TOO!!So if you are reading this blog and it's between 8/19 and 8/25, GO HERE AND VOTE FOR ME!!! That would be really super of you!! :-D

When I get back I'm sure Kim will have lots more glorious things for me to play with, hooray! I gotta tell ya, it's pretty awesome being on your favorite designer's CT. My fingers are crossed that I come back from this vacation with oodles of pics to scrap and some BIG news. :-D Keep those fingers crossed for me!

It looks like I might also be a guest CT for Heather Manning in September. See how things go for a trial period and whatnot. She's trying to steal all of Kim's CT ;o) But that's just a testament to how AWESOME we are! WHOOHOO!!
But I do enjoy Heather's stuff, and since she expressed interest (and Kim said she would share :oP) I figured I'd give it a shot. It's always good to get your name out there right? :o)

So. I think. I should pack. :o( I don't really like packing because I am one of those people who packs approximately 15 times too much :oP So this should be interesting considering we're gonna share a suitcase. How am I ever gonna whittle down the giant pile of clothes on my bed! LOL! Better get started!

I hope you all have fabulous weeks and weekends and that I return to find you well.

*Big Hugs*
~Col

Crazy monday!

Helloooooooo everyone and happy monday! Did you all have wonderful weekends? I had a nice relaxing one thanks to being the DD on saturday night. But it made sunday morning much more tolerable and we had a great time, so I can't complain. :o)

So first, I've two TOOTs to share! First off, I'm Layout of the Week @ DSO AGAIN! WHOOHOO!! I won it for my "Who Says" LO posted on thursday! How cool!!

And my second TOOT, is that KimB says I'm a Rockin Girl Blogger! Whoohoo!


I know not many people read my blog (most see my template from Ikea and just snag it and move on I'm sure), but a few of you are wonderful enough to stop by and comment on all that goes and leave me love, and for that I am so grateful! So since I've been nominated, I get to pick 5 new rockin girl blogs! Whoohoo!

#1) Kirsty Wiseman aka Limegreenboogiegirl! I first started reading her blog for her glorious overlays, but I've stayed thanks to her wit and amazing photography. It's VERY inspiring for me.

#2) Shandy Vogt! Her use of Swass astounds me and she's a truly genuine and wonderful woman. She's always been very supportive (although she might not even realize it, lol) to me and my work, and is always so pleased to see what I've done using her products. I just love seeing myself on her shines lists, lol!

#3) Misty Cato! Her tutorials have helped me SO much since I first started in the digiscrap world! And her designs are pretty darn awesome too! Plus I love seeing her own work when she posts it. There's always something new I can learn from it!

#4)The Legacy Lady! Since I discovered her blog some 2 months ago, I've stopped by every day to see what new inspiring piece of advise/photo/tutorial she's put up. She writes from the heart and I love hearing what she has to say (and looking at her incredible photographs).

#5) Ikea Goddess of course!! Without whom I probably never would have even started in digital! It's so much easier to start in this medium when you've got so many FREE options out there! I've spent plenty now, but in the beginning, it was all about the freebies, and to be honest, I think it always will! LOL!

There are honestly about 25 blogs I stop by everyday to gain inspiration from but I could only pick 5! So difficult! Lol!

So if you've read this far, then you deserve a gift! A freebie gift of course! So here is template #7 (I promise to get more rectangle templates up and ready soon, I really do!)


Here is the LO I drew inspiration from: Splash!
And here is my own LO for it using KimB's "Bygone Gents" kit of course!


Phew, this is a long post! I think I better quit while I'm ahead ;o) I hope you all enjoy your freebie! I may be able to post another on wednesday (hopefully). We leave for vacation on thursday and won't be back until the 27th pretty late. But I'll have lots of pics to scrap and lots of inspiration to draw from and create new templates for everyone!

Have a great week in case I don't post again!
Lots of love!
*Hugs*

~Col