The weekend wasnt long enough.

Wow, what a weekend. It was long, but entirely too short at the same time. Things were busy, busy, busy! Friday I spent some time at Sean's house trying to get his cousin's dial-up hooked up. Way back in the day I worked for a top ISP in their dial up dept so I do know a little bit about the process. This is the first time I had worked with Vista but really, it wasnt that different. Easier to navigate I think. Anyway, I set up a new dialer, all I needed was his username, password and an access number. Easy. Right? WRONG! Holy mother of confusion. What's your username? I dont know. So I go and search for his username on the computer and find it. What's your password? I dont know. Do you know? How would I know your password? Oh. Ummm, it could be this, this, this, or may be this. But if thats not it, try this. OKAY! So then I call tech support. Lady answers the phone I say all I need is an access number. She says that there are none available for my area and I say that there must be. She looks again and VOILA a number. I repeat the number to her THREE TIMES to make sure I have it right. Yes, you do. Awesome, I will try to connect. Sneaky me, I called on a cell phone. Tech agents hate that, I know this because I hated it myself. ;) So I hear hold music. WHAT? She put me on hold without telling me? Thats rude. She is going to get a bad quality on this call. It gets worse for her though. The phone starts ringing and I hear her do her opening statement. I say to her, Wow, did you just TRY to hang up on me? She is confused. No, you must have been talking to someone else. Nope, it was you. Oh...ummm....ahhh....it must have disconnected. Nope, it didnt because I didnt hang up, it rang back. You tried to hang up on me. Then like a good agent (haha) she tried to swerve the conversation back to the connection issue. Were you able to connect? Nope, some man answered. It was a bad number. She replies, wow thats weird. Yeah. Weird. Ya got another number? Nope, thats it. May be its the dialer? It cant be the dialer, I reply, its the number. It might be the dialer. ITS NOT THE DIALER! However, if you want, we can try that. You have to make sure you delete all the old dialers or it wont let you connect. Why? I dont know, it just wont connect. Thats not true, I reply, you can have more then one dialer on a computer. Nope, you cant. FINE, I WILL DELETE THE OTHER DIALERS BUT IT'S STILL NOT GETTING ME A NEW ACCESS NUMBER! I calmly reply. I tell her that when I go home I will go to their site and get a number myself. No, no, she is more then happy to help. RIGHT-O! So I politely say goodbye and hang up on her. Then I yelled a not very nice name at her while Sean's cousin starred at me with his chin on his chest. I am normally a very sweet person in front of them. lol Anyway, I went home and had the access number in 10 seconds. He was connected in no time. So I am better at tech support then tech support. Still cant believe that she was so 'smart' that she couldnt even hang up on me properly. At least I had that down pat. KIDDING! I never hung up on ANYONE! *evil laughter*
The rest of my weekend in photos....
Connor had a fantastic party! He had about 20 kids and loved each and every gift he received. Connor and his cousins.

We met Earl's girlfriend, Christine. She seems really nice and I love that she has my big bro whipped. ;)

It snowed on Mother's Day! Just when we were starting to get nice weather.

Anyway, this was suppose to be a quick post about the weekend. Not so quick. lol Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and a terrific Mother's Day!

New product and a Coupon!!

Celebrations are all around me these last few days so I wanted to celebrate with you as well!! Thats why I am throwing out this coupon code! It is good for 30% off all of Photoshop Actions! Hurry though because it is only good through the weekend!!! AH-PSA-0108
Check out all of my actions here!









Overprotective Overlays Pack 2!!!! Created for the 'rectangle' scrappers!!! Have fun with these new divided page protector overlays. With four different designs the page ideas are endless! Add photos, elements, papers, alphas, fonts and anything else you can imagine for quick, flowing layouts. The pack comes with four 8x10 distinct overlays in PNG format.


I finished my garbage window! I couldnt sleep the other night so I got up, gathered some things from around the house and completed my project. I cannot show you today though because currently Sean is in my room sleeping after a back shift. May be I can update later with a photo. Anyway, its a 2x2 layout. Biggest layout I have ever made and let me tell you, the trickiest. There was hot glue, regular glue, scissors, paint, glaze, ribbon, photos, paper, old garbage window, flowers, leaves, trimmmers, and time involved. Its done though. Whew.

Yesterday was Connor's birthday! My baby turned SIX! What a big boy. I am super proud of him. For a fun surprise yesterday I went to the bakery and ordered a birthday muffin for him. The lady was really excited to make it when I told her what I was doing! It was a plain vanilla muffin with blue icing and sprinkles! I headed over to the school and surprised Connor with it at lunch. He came running to the door wearing his big blue paper crown yelling, Mommy, I am the KING! And sure enough, his crown announced that he was indeed, King! All of his classmates were running around me telling me how exciting the morning had been. They all sang Happy Birthday to him, he got to wear the cool crown AND now he had a special birthday muffin just for himself! What a great day to turn 6! After school we took him to McDonald's for a treat. We came home and baked a cake for Sean who is celebrating his birthday today!! We baked Sean a 'dream cake' which he really liked! Tomorrow is Connor's party and I will definitely be taking lots of photos and sharing!
Here is a quick shot of my BIG BOY on his birthday!

Notice the mark under his lip? He has been sucking on his lip and its all broken out. I took this photo from standing above him. Check out the Notebook Challenges this month at the Guild, they are all about new perspectives!!
Now I have to get back to work, busy weekend ahead of us!

Iron Man!

Connor and Sean are both completely obsessed with Iron Man. OBSESSED!!! Its unreal. Every time we say, what do you want for supper tonight? Connor screams BURGER KING because they have the toys. We went there the other night and the young man working gave Connor two toys because he just thought that they were so cool and that he needed them both. Men. lol Today I said I had to do my photo and of course who wanted to be the star? Iron Man himself!

So I thought I would have fun with it and give it an almost newspaper feel with my Grainy Day Photo PS Action.
Scrapping! The Scrappy Awards have begun over there at DST and I HAVE BEEN NOMINATED (four times!)!! WHOOT WHOOT! Its all so exciting. I have no chance of actually winning but its still nice to be recognized! :) Speaking of scrapping I havent scrapped in a few days. Well, I havent completed anything in a few days. I have a page started for my challenge this week. What would YOU do with a million dollars? Scrap about it and post at the GUILD!! We would love to see! I just installed PSE 4, courtesy of Sean's uncle and am learning the ropes. It is pretty easy to figure out but it annoys a bit because I already know how to complete everything in PS. I dont have a very good attention span these days. :)
Working on some new products that will hopefully be in the store Friday! Yippee!! My Overprotective Overlays were quite the hit and I have had a few ladies ask about some rectangle ones. Getting to work on those as well! They should be ready by the weekend as well. I love digital. Its the best. ;) I should be going to bed now. Busy day ahead of us tomorrow.

Look at that elephant dance!

I have no idea what to title this post as so I decided to go with something a little bit silly. My life is so full of things that need to get done right now. Well, I guess thats always the way huh? I have started getting out the invites for Connor's party on Saturday! I can hardly believe that my baby boy will be SIX on Thursday. I will never forget the day he was born. Wow, it was quite the journey we went through. I went into labor at around 1am and did not deliver him until 10:30pm. The longest, most painful day of my life but definitely worth it. Man, when the nurse handed Connor to me I was instantly filled with love and devotion. I was yelling at them to hurry and pass me my precious new bundle. LOL NOT! Oh man. I was terrified. The nurse had to literally drop him on my chest and run, for me to pick him up. My first feelings were not love and devotion, I was beyond terrified at this little stranger looking up at me. I could not believe that they were going to trust me with something so small and so trusting. I had no idea how we were going to make it through but we were going to give it our best. That night after everyone had left and the halls were empty, I laid in bed starring over at this little boy in the cradle next to me. He still didnt have a name at this point. He had a little card above his head that stated all of his facts, but no name.
I was laying there wondering how on Earth we were going to make it through the night, let alone the world. Then the nurse came FLYING into the room. Your mother called she said, no one took any photos of the baby. lol Can you imagine? The first laughter we shared. Ok, I laughed and he just laid there but still, it was a great moment. Lots of pictures came after those ones. As scared as we both were that night, I think we have done pretty well together. Connor is definitely trying at times but for the most part, he is such a fantastic little boy. I wouldnt trade him for the world. Every day that I share with him is one I treasure, even when I threaten to ship him off to his father's place. ;)
That night when I had started pushing my mother came to me and said, Sean wants to know if you can hold off for another two hours. WHAT? Sean and I were just friends then. His birthday was the next day and he thought that it would be so cool if I had the baby on his birthday. I politely and calmly replied with a 'no.' Ok, more like I scream, IS HE OUT OF HIS MIND! at the top of my lungs. lol So Connor was born one day, Sean celebrated his birthday the next. Now we all celebrate together. On Friday evening we will have a cake for Sean and some balloons. Should be fun! Some Walmart photos of Connor when he was a baby!



Holy long post, right?
I will sum up. Yesterday was wonderful. I spent the whole day at my parents' house hanging out with my Dad. Man, did he work me. We did a lot of work out in the yard, went for a 5k walk, did more work out in the yard. Unreal how that man can go. I worked on my garbage window! YAY! Got it painted. Now to put it together. We had a visitor yesterday.

I got my first (and last) sunburn of the year. Not the greatest picture but oh well.

I just came in from playing outside with Connor. The kid has SO MUCH ENERGY and I just want to flop out on the couch. Alas I cannot, I have to get this house ready for the weekend.

National Scrapbooking Day

ITS HERE! ITS HERE! NSD has arrived and oh the fun of it all! I am just amazed at the amount of activity at all of the sites. Its so wonderful. I truly enjoy seeing how excited people get about it. So many people share this hobby and its very inspiring to me. Way back in the day I had originally started out as a paper scrapper. I wasnt a good paper scrappy mind you. I thought I was. lol I had fun and that is the best thing. Today I headed to Michael's first thing in the morning. They are having their grand opening celebrations this week so I grabbed my coupons and away we went. Connor had a blast making his very own velvet art bookmark. He was so proud of himself. He also asked if I would teach him how to scrap using 'real' paper. lol How cute is that! Of course I said yes and we went ahead and bought some paper. He had lots of fun picking out his papers. They dont match AT ALL but he had fun. I also had fun, I once again bought things that I cannot afford to purchase right now. I CANNOT HELP THAT I AM ADDICTED! Only with lots of paper and paint, I purchased a new trimmer. (50% off thank you very much!)

I also bought a corner punch, however I accidentally grabbed the wrong one. Oops. So the next time he is in the city, Sean is going to buy me a regular round corner punch. I have this one now. (Also 50% off!)


I have been SO BUSY with digital stuff as well. It seems like I get nothing done but I really do! I swear it! I am completely in love with my newest product, Overprotective, I REALLY AM! They are so fun, so quick, so versatile. This is another layout I created yesterday for my dear sweet man.

They are in the store this weekend at 50% so go and GRAB THEM! ONLY $1.50!!! (USD)

Melly, if you read this. DO I EVER USE A LOT OF EXCLAMATION POINTS! I didnt notice until you mentioned it to me. We should start a club. ;)

I hope EVERYONE had the best NSD yet! Now stop reading and go scrap!

The weekend is upon us!

So is National Scrapbooking Day!! WAHOO!! ITS TOMORROW PEOPLE! Thats so cool. I am such a geek. lol Anyway!!
In celebration of National Scrapbooking Day, May 3rd, my WHOLE STORE is on sale at 50% starting today until Sunday!! I have also been busy busy busy trying to get some new products in the store for you all to enjoy!! In spirit of the weekend I am also going to have a fun challenge!!! If you purchase any of my NEW products (meaning the ones below), create a layout, post in the Guild or NDISB gallery and PM me the link, I will send you a coupon for 25% off your NEXT purchase. (Coupon will be effective starting Monday May 5th.) Also!!! One lucky person will win a $10 GC for any product in my store!!! So take a peek at my new products for May and then go SHOPPING!! WAHOO!!! :D
Overprotective Overlays pack! Comes with 4 different PNG style overlays! You can have so much fun with these! Fill the pockets with photos, elements, papers, alphas, stamp on them, journal on them, get creative with them!!

Do you have Photoshop? Do you love actions? Well then you just have to check out my new action, Tone It Down! This action takes your colored photos and adds a hint of sepia tone for a cool new look. This action was created in PSCS2 and I cannot guarantee that it will work in other programs.

And the paper pack that I introduced yesterday, Funky Dayz!


Of course I just HAD to play with these page protectors, I just love them! They are super fun to play with! They almost have a template feeling to them. The layout is there, you just need to fill in the blanks. ;) I created this layout of my son, Connor, with the oh so amazing Guild kit for this month, Ready For Prime Time.

Oh and remember my layout from yesterday? Speak to me? WELL the one and only Miss Debb Cozzi added it to the gallery standouts today!! I am TOTALLY EXCITED! Thanks sweetie!!

Hope everyone has a Scrap-a-licious weekend! :)

Rain, rain go AWAY!

It is STILL raining. I really wish it would stop. Things just stop moving when the weather is gross like this! At least when there is snow on the ground we have something pretty to look at. The other day when we were driving down the street Sean started pointing out the window yelling LOOK LOOK! I thought he was going nuts. What am I looking at Sweetie? THE GRASS! What about the grass Sweetie? ITS TURNING GREEN! OMG IT TOTALLY IS! WILL SPRING ACTUALLY COME? WILL SUMMER? WILL THE SHINE ON OUR FAIR TOWN ONCE AGAIN?!!?? May be. Starting to doubt that though. I am really anxious to get outside and take some pictures of people. You know, have fun, roll around on the ground with my camera while people point and stare. The good times. ;) Speaking of good times, I have a new paper pack in the store today. Only $1.99 AND you get a bonus wordart to match. How awesome is that! Check it out in the store, its called Funky Dayz.

I went to Michael's again yesterday. Yuppers. I have to STOP that place is going to be the death of me. I only spent one hour there this time though. Thats only because Sean and I wanted to head out to a show. We saw Harold and Kumar, they are SO funny but you really have to be ok with toilet humor to enjoy it. The lady sitting behind us? She was ROARING! I spent more time laughing at her. It was fantastic. lol. You are all dying to know what I bought at Michael's arent you? I know you are! Well, Sean bought me a set of pliers, the ones for making necklaces. SO I bought a whole bunch of necklace making supplies. I KNOW because I dont have ENOUGH HOBBIES ALREADY! Right? Right. So anyway, I made two necklaces last night while watching American Idol. I totally knew Brooke was going home this week but still oh so sad about it. She has such a wonderful air about her. Fun, free and very emotive. Anyway....my necklace.


Cool, huh? I like it.
Its the FIRST OF THE MONTH! That means that the Guild kit has been released!! ITS AMAZING! Check it out here!
And of course the Artisan Notebook has been released and I am already head first into it, check that out here! You also get a bonus set of elements by Debb Cozzi with this issue! I, of course, have been playing with the kit nonstop for days!! I have two and a half layouts made with it so far but this one is my fave by far. I know that the thumbnail in the galleries does it no justice. :( I love it though. Its SO MUCH Connor. All the fun little sayings that he has, all boy and totally free!

Yesterday I made up some invitations for Connor's party next weekend. He wanted a Transformer party and that is what he is going to get! We could not find any invites around here so Mom broke out Photoshop. ;) Here it is! May be you could use it as well some time. It is 3.5x5 so you can fit four on a regular letter sized sheet of paper to save money as well.

Click on image for full size.
That's it for me. Going to work on some more things now I suppose. :) Have a great day!