Meg Harper is on Etsy! And a new favorite blog...

My friend Meg Harper opened up an Etsy shop! She only has a couple prints in there right now but hopefully there will be more soon. They are from her Affirmations series and have inspirational wording woven throughout the paintings. You can check out her shop, artjoymeg by clicking HERE. And see a bunch of her other paintings on her website, http://www.megharper.com/.
Next, I think I found a new favorite blog today! Danielle Thompson has so many pretty things to look at, I added her to my list but I highly recommend taking a peak now HERE.

Back to Digital Scrapbooking

Ok no more controversial blog topics for me! Back to the frivolous things I understand better and prefer to talk about! Some of you have asked about digital scrapbooking, how to get started, and I came across THIS PAGE on Two Peas that totally tells you what you need and how to get going, so if you're interrested click that link! And if you just don't think you'll ever want to try designing your own pages, Shutterfly has beautiful ready made books you can just pop your pictures in! See this one and others HERE. My poor laptop hard drive is dead, but if I just get a new hard drive it should be great again, so hopefully I can talk Sam into letting me replace it when we get our tax refund! This old computer is so slow and short on space I can't stand to use Photoshop on it so I think I'm taking a digital scrapbooking break for a bit.

200th Post!

I've been looking forward to my 200th post! I'm not into politics, but the issue of illegal immigration is a biggie for me. I don't know if there is a "right" thing to do here, but I know what we're doing now as a nation is not working. I read THIS ARTICLE today and it is really sad. Read it, think about it, it's just not right to tear apart a family.

T.G.I. Almost Monday!

Sunday nights sometimes come with some gloom thinking about the upcoming Monday, but I have to say I am ready for this weekend to be OVER! It was frustrating and unproductive- I had a lot of plans that didn't happen, we started enough projects to just totally tear up my house and leave it a disaster area and I can't wait to start getting things wrapped up and put back together tomorrow! All 3 of my kids are sleeping on mattresses on the floor in the same (messy) room! One good thing from the weekend was trying out this odd little hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant with really good tacos! Sam tried it out earlier in the week and since I was in no mood to cook by the end of the day Saturday, he suggested we go try it out. I wanted to turn around and walk right back out as soon as we walked in. No one spoke a bit of English, and they didn't even have a soda machine! We had to walk down to another creepy Mexican restaurant to pick up drinks! (and no Dr. Pepper there either)
Anyways, Valentines was good- I initially wanted to make a different kind of cookie every day of the week but after 3 days of butter and sugar I decided it was enough. We made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with half chocolate chips and half Valentine M&M's, Peanut blossoms with Dove hearts instead of kisses, and pink snickerdoodles!For dinner the girls helped me make some super yummy heart shaped pizzas- since we did it last year it is a tradition!I got some Pomegranite Martini Mix and added it to sprite to make it pink and tasty. (FYI- it just tasted like cranberry juice in Sprite, for future reference, next time I think I'll just get cherry 7-up!) For breakfast I punched heart cookie cutters through bread before toasting it and that was much easier and just as impressive for the kids as heart pancakes would have been. I made Sam this Glitz sweetheart clear album (class at the scrapbook store) Yes I'm sure just what every guy wants for Valentines! But it was fun to make.and the girls got little baggies of dollar store stuff and they seemed to like it too. I hope you had a great Valentines and a better weekend than me!

Belly

3 posts in 1 night, this might be a record! I was trying to watch Never Been Kissed the other night but I kept getting distracted by Charlie's wild dancing in my belly- I finally busted out the camera and tried to get a little video documentation. I was holding perfectly still except for breathing. I know this isn't something new, if you've been pregnant you've seen it, but it's pretty fascinating to me.

Sunday Afternoon UFO

Today Miss B ran in screaming wildly and we thought someone must be seriously injured, until we saw the unidentified falling object she was so excited about- 2 red heart mylar balloons drifting down from the sky into our backyard. The horses were terrified, they had never seen such a horrible thing before but the girls were thrilled- you'd think a treasure chest had just fallen from the sky! Sam took them back to recover the object and they had a lot of fun with them until the popped balloon that had brought them down, became untangled, and they lifted off into the sky again.

And in other news, our little Miss E has figured out how to "climb over" her crib. Thank goodness she is moving out in the next week or so. Last night when Sam went to check on the girls before bed, he found this:
How cute and sneaky.

$1 Font Sale

There are probably thousands of free fonts out there, but sometimes there's something specific you're looking for and it's necessary to buy one! Scrap 'n Fonts is having a $1 sale on most of their fonts, card kits and "doodlebats" (simple clip art like designs that work like your dingbat fonts- see the sample below) so now is a GREAT time to stock up on a few! They have a ton of really cute things- the sale ends Valentines Day I believe so go check it out HERE.

Valentines on Etsy

Sarah Jane Studios art seems to be on tons of blogs but this illustration was new to me- I love it. You can get a set of 10 postcards for $16.
These little valentine button bouquets were cute too:And these chocolate covered oreos are really cute and something fun and easy even kids could help with:

I'm trying to come up with something fun to make the girls for Valentines... any ideas? Sam is getting a little clear love album I made at a Glitz class- it was fun.

I've lost a limb.

I am sorry for the lack of blog posts- I can't post right now because I just want to complain. If I WAS going to post, I would just tell you after talking to Dell Tech Support, and having some computer programers we know examine my laptop, it appears that the hard drive is a total loss. All the digital scrapbooking supplies I've collected, fonts, digital scrapbook pages I've made and not printed, pictures, (saved to Shutterfly thank goodness, but gone for my files) all my Quicken files that I needed for taxes, my e-mail addresses, my internet favorites, and probably lots of other things I haven't thought of yet, GONE. Sam quit his job at the end of the year and has started a new business and I am so excited for him, but right now we are just trying to not drain all our savings, so a new laptop is just not in my near future. Oh and we've been to the pediatrition 4 times in the last month, and Miss B is on round 2 of antibiotics for Strep Throat. I'm not ignoring the blessings though, no one else has gotten it yet.
I'll just show you one of my favorite old pictures- since that's all I have on this computer. It's Sam and Miss B. when she was 1 playing outside the Dallas temple.It makes me smile even when I'm being a grump. I will take some new pictures, and find something fun and interresting to blog about soon!

Hooked on QVC

I stayed up last night to see Glitz on QVC and got hooked, today I am not straying far from my office TV to keep peeking at their "paper crafting fair!" You can buy some of the stuff from their website, including a kit of Glitz "frosting" strips and arrows HERE. I've never really watched QVC but they have a lot of things begging me to bust out the credit card and start running it up! (don't worry Sam, I won't)

My laptop crashed last week so I feel really disconnected- I can check my e-mail and blog on my office computer but I can't remember the password to my COX e-mail if anyone tries to e-mail me, don't use that one! Dell is sending me some disks that "might" recover "some or all" of my data so I am crossing my fingers!

In a past life...

I worked as a media buyer for an advertising agency and it's all still interresting to me. Obviously in the last 6 years things have changed a lot with the internet and how people use it for advertising and there was no YouTube. I think it's great how Dr. Pepper took the Chocolate Rain guy, and made a music video and song "Chocolate Cherry Rain" with him, to promote their new product Chocolate Cherry Dr. Pepper and stuck it on YouTube. (I wonder what the CPP, reach and frequency of it works out to be?)If you never saw Chocolate Rain, you really should check out the original video with over 14 million views HERE. Then see the Chocolate Cherry Dr. Pepper video HERE.
PS- has anyone tried it? I was tempted to buy a 12 pack when they were on sale last week but decided I better try it first.

I love digital scrapbooking!

I can sit on the couch, with my laptop, watch TV, and scrapbook, with no mess to clean up afterwards!

If you know someone having quadruplets...

You should forward this post to them. This is not a joke- you can actually BUY this "Double Double Decker Crib"! I think it's hysterical- and scary. I'm window shopping for new baby furniture so if I win the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes I will know what I want and exactly where to get it!

A few finished projects

I have actually finished a couple projects a long time in the making! First my much-talked-about (by me) advent calendar. I actually finished it just before Christmas but kept forgetting to post the pictures! I already want one with new papers but this one will do for another year at least.

Next my photo wall! I've had a huge bare wall over my couch since we moved in, with a few failed attempts at filling the space, and finally I have something I'm proud of. I rounded up a bunch of mis-matched frames and painted them all to match each other. It could use a few more, but this will do for now.

And my valentines tree- I got this vase with flowers when one of my kids was born and while I was at it with the frames, I painted it red. (then kind of ruined it with the glitter but oh well) And stuck the syrofoam cone in, and just layered it with some left over cut out hearts I've had for a couple years. I used the pins with pearls on the end, and then finished it with some little felt flowers I found at Big Lots and I think it turned out pretty cute! My kids were really impressed anyways.

Stayed up late- but I was productive!

Ready to Rock the Vote?

I have my mail-in ballot sitting here for the primary election and I feel kind of dumb because I don't know who to vote for! There are a few that stand out to me, but I want to choose the right person, for the right reasons so I'm a little stuck. I found this cool Candidate Match game from USA today that has a questions you answer and it matches the candidate who best fits you and what you want from the government. I was really excited about it, but now I'm even more confused because I'm a registered republican, and it came up with 2 democrats as my top 2 picks, and then when I adjusted the weight I give certain issues, I have 3 democrats! (and none of the front runners either) So I guess it hasn't solved anything for me, but you might want to check it out yourself! Click HERE.
UPDATE: I just re-took it and changed a couple answers that could have gone either way for me and came up with someone I can vote for- yeah! So try that too.

And speaking of harmful chemicals...

There is no treat I like better than Dr. Pepper, and specifically Dr. Pepper with Sonic ice (you know the kind with crunchy little balls) in a styrofoam cup! I never feel too bad about it, even when I'm pregnant since my book says 2 cups of coffee a day are ok- which is equal to 5 cans of soda, and I usually don't have more than 1 or 2, but today there's a new study out that makes it harder to justify! On they news they said 200mg of caffeine (or 5 12oz cans of pop) a day will double your risk of miscarriage. Yikes! And that caffeine readily crosses the placenta, but it's hard for their little bodies to metabolize it. Ok, I guess I've always known it wasn't good, but it has made me look at it a little differently... I've had 2 miscarriages before, but I know I didn't touch caffeine with the first one, and I'm not sure on the second one, but it happened really early and I know I didn't drink it daily then either. And I drank it plenty with my last 2 babies and they turned out fine. So there you go- if you wanted to know the facts about caffeine when you're pregnant, that's what I know. I'm not ready to swear it off completely for the next 3 months (and if you think that makes me a bad mom, don't tell me!) but I am taking it more seriously now dang it!

Harsh Chemicals and Pregnancy

I'll try not to post too many boring pregnancy things, but I'm wondering if this happens to anyone else. These things make my mouth water- I literally crave the smell of harsh chemicals when I'm pregnant! Don't worry, I'm not going to injest any of them, and I'm not huffing them or anything, but I think my kitchen sink does get a little extra scrubbing when I'm pregnant because I look forward to the smell! Is this totally strange?

Third Trimester

I've got to document the belly before everything else starts swelling up! I'm offically starting the 7th month now- is anything ready yet? No, hopefully next month we will get the girls rooms moved around and my last baby out of the crib. (once hunting season is over of course!) and then in March I can start decorating and see what I need to buy for baby Charlie!

Valentines Dress

I am not in the market for Valentines Dresses, and this one isn't in my budget anyways, but isn't it SO cute? Find it at Hanna Andersson HERE.