News from the land of chaos

I say chaos, because that is how I feel my life is right now. I guess I will just go down the list and update you.

I have been asked to teach Kindergarten at a school I had never been to before. I accepted the position, and we aren't sure if the current teacher will be returning mid-year or if she will be out the full year. This leaves me with so many doubts. How much time, effort, energy, money etc., should I pour into this classroom knowing that I may only be there for a short time. Well, after mulling it over a few days, I decided that I am putting my all into it. At the worst, they will tell me at the end of September that she is coming back. Then I will pack up my belongings, and motor on. But until then, I am proceeding as though this is my classroom. I have already moved the furniture around, decorated and started to meet with the kids and parents. So for right now, it's my room. If she returns, I will have at least given these kids my all for the time I was there, and that is what they need (especially after having met some of them).

So, I am very excited... school officially starts for Kindergarten on Thursday! I have meetings with parents until then.

Madelyn will be starting pre-school this year. We really pondered whether or not she was ready, but we are going for it. She needs to be with kids her own age more, and that was the driving force behind the final decision. It is only three half days a week, but I know she will love it and is already very excited about it!

Lauren decided to get sick my first week of working at the school. She has been running a fever for two days now, and although I am glad it happened on the weekend, it has really worn me out. She is very clingy and just wants to lay on you all day and all night. Poor baby. You can see it in her face, she just doesn't feel good :( There is no feeling like the helplessness you feel when your baby is sick. I remember it all too well from Madelyn. Luckily, my kids don't get sick too often.

I am blessed that way, and hoping it stays that way.

We were supposed to go to a concert last night and didn't make it because I just couldn't bear to leave her. I told Mike to take the tickets and go, but he didn't want to go without me... so here we both sat with our sick baby and poor MJ watching Peter Pan! It sucks because now that Mike's schedule has adjusted and he is off Fridays and Saturdays, he is finally able to do stuff! Concerts, weddings, parties, cookouts.... fairs, carnivals, get togethers with our friends! They all happen on the weekends, and we weren't able to go for so long! This was the first time in a LONG time Mike and I were going to a concert together, and it just wasn't meant to be. We got Wendy's and Dairy Queen instead :)

I am designing two new kits right now, and I am very excited about them. Still have news about my designs up my sleeve that will be let out soon, but I need to keep it under wraps for a little while longer. Hoping to do some scrapping of my own tonite, to kind of wind down from the sickness.

Madelyn's playground is finally finished! We have a deck to build still, but that is the last of it. Here is a picture of how it turned out. Lots of blood and sweat went into the preparation of this baby... but soooo worth it. She loves it !!! Today we erected her PIRATE GIRL flag! You can see it in the second picture!

So, that's the news from the land of chaos.... trying to hold it all together until everything winds down. It will... it always does!

Closing my Divine Shop and some layouts

Well, I have decided to close up my Divine shop, and I have put my resignation in over there. I just don't frequent the site as often as I should, and I know that I need to do that to make my shop as successful as I want it to be.

I have something new up my sleeve but I can't really talk about it yet.

So, for now I am going through my kits one-by-one and revamping then , adding elements and papers, or retiring them. It is hard to go through your older work because you see things as your tastes change that you don't like anymore, or as you learn new techniques, the old ones don't look as good as they once did.

So, keep your eyes pealed for some new and improved stuff from me :) I will be releasing some blog freebies soon too over on the Steel City Scraps blog. I will miss being at Divine for the Ingredients Challenge (which I may still do on my design blog) -- and being with the wonderful friends I have over there.

I have a new Creative Team that is kicking bootie -- some girls have stuck with me from the jump and I ADORE THEM both for their layouts, but moreso for their friendship and support. I also have some new girls who are busting out some incredible layouts - and I would love for you to drop over the CT blog and leave them some love! You can check it out here: CITY GIRLS BLOG.

But, ah, what the future holds...............

On that note: you guys know I am on a few CT's now -- and loving it because it forces me to allot some scrap time in my life --- which I so desperately need!!

So here are some of my latest layouts ---

I created this self-portrait for a Duchess Designs blog challenge last week - I used her Girlfriends: Kathryne kit for this one. Take a good look because you won't see me scrapping a picture of myself for awhile.

SELF-PORTRAIT

The next one was also for the Duchess -- her latest Girlfriends: Peyton -- I love these peach colors!

SUGAR AND SPICE

I did these next two for Danielle Corbitt's featured kit of the week Just a Lil Flirt - this is huge! and it is such a very cute kit! I could have made more layouts with it -- and probably will.

TREAT THAT'S SWEET

For this one I also used her Wrapped in Floral Frames -- really cute !

DADDY AND LAUREN

Lastly, I did two more for Danielle Corbitt using her Backyard Blast kit. This one has a ton of summery elements!

LAZY DAYS OF SUMMER

PUPPET SHOW

Thanks for looking :) Feel free to drop over to my Digital Candy gallery and leave me some lovin :)

Christie Lemmon Designs at Digital Candy

Christie has a had a dream for awhile now, and that was to get into the shop at Digital Candy. Well that dream came true this week !! I am so happy to tell you that Christie's shop is now open for bisnass! You can check it out here.

Over at Digital Candy they have some amazing challenges, friendly people and it is just an all around warm and welcoming site. It isn't overwhelmingly large, but still a nice crew! NEVER BORING!

Thought I would share some layouts with you I did for both Digital Candy challenges or for my creative teams over there.

First, THE SPEED SCRAP hosted by JenLin!! HELLO! I loved this challenge. You get one hour to scrap your page, instructions are given every few minutes and you have to follow them to finish your layout. It was incredible, and I wish there was another one this week. I am really, really looking forward to the next one. I used Christie's SIMPLY ADORABLE kit for this layout - except the stitiching which came from her Cherry Lemonade kit.

MADELYN'S BOO BOO

Next, I did two layouts with Christie's new kit called Mud Puddles. This is a sneak peek because it isn't even in the store yet! It will be released tomorrow, and I am here to tell you -- even though it's boy colors -- you can definitely go in alot of different directions with this kit. Very versatile, and I loved working with it.

LIL DIVA

BUDDIES

Thanks for looking :) Head over to Christie's new design blog and leave her some love!

An Announcement :)

Well, some of you have asked, emailed and/or commented about what my scoop is. Well, I can now officially tell you that I can hang my designer wings at DIVINE DIGITAL!!!

That's right, you are looking at .... well, not really.... you are reading (?!?) the newest designer at Divine! I am so excited. It took me all of NSD weekend to get set up and get some product in the shoppe, but I have. I put in three of my faves: Millie's Garden, Sentimental and Soft Whisper. I have some new kits in the works this week to put up. It was truly a lot to learn, but now that I have done it once, it will be a lot easier from now on. I did my homework, read the manuals and everything :)

I am really excited. So you can visit my shoppe here, or you can click my new little blinkie on the side that my Christie made for me :) Thanks Christie!!!

I hope you guys will still come by, I will still have freebies, giveaways, contests and will be hosting challenges and such at Divine! So stay tuned..... a new chapter is just beginning!

A new layout with my RAK

Over on my design blog, I am giving out a RAK (random act of kindness) to those readers/downloaders/whatever that comment or send me layouts etc.

I did a layout today with it, and I love how it turned out. I did it for the IVillage Digital Scrapbooking boards Friday challenge. Today was a quote challenge!

This is Madelyn, and it was taken 1-4-2006!!! Can you believe my MJ is almost THREE!

Hop on over to SAS and leave me some love !!!

Designing .... the scoop

Ok, so I am really digging this designing thing. I am constantly looking now for cool color combinations and themes even when I am just doing every day things. For those who have asked here is the breakdown of how many times each kit has been downloaded so far.... I say so
far because it seriously is still going up every day !


Coffee Talk: 373

Summer Cottage: 570

Millie's Garden: 579
Under My Pillow elements: 472
Under My Pillow papers: 517
First Tooth elements: 288
Sentimental: 632
On the Go: 454
Spring's Bliss: 495

Seriously! Can you believe that? I can't!!! I love it - but now you understand why I had to seperate the blogs... that's a whole lotta somebodies checking out my shit! So, I didn't want all the Maddie-isms and Lauren's milestones among the people who are just out for a freebie, KWIM?

Spring's Bliss

Be sure to check out my new kit, created for the SAS color challenge.

It is called Spring's Bliss, and here is a preview.

Check out my new design blog - STEEL CITY SCRAPS for the freebie download!

Thinking....

I am thinking of creating two different blogs.

One for me personally: with my rantings, and my personal pictures, layouts.
One for the STEEL CITY SCRAPS stuff - layouts done with the kits and my freebies.

That way, things will be more divided and easier to keep track of.

Any thoughts????

First Tooth Goodies

I have some first tooth tags and wordart that I made for my friend Heather when her little one's first tooth broke through. I originally made them blue, since her little bug is a boy :) But I just made some pink ones too.

Grab this freebie here if you can use em !!!

New Freebie kit - Millie's Garden

Again this is a cottage reference! I can tell Spring is here because I am starting to get anxious for summer and warmer weather - which means 'LAKE TIME' to me. I love being there. Just relaxing on the beach all day, no TV - limited phone, (some computer - via wireless from the main house), but really reading all day, spending time with my family, playing cards, cooking, eating, beaching, drinking - all things that make a 'city girl' like me happy!

So, when I was growing up Millie lived in the main house. She was like a third grandmother to me. She taught me to cook, how to entertain guests, and more importantly how to be a good friend, mentor and role model to other people. She had a zest for life that if I could bottle, would make me a gazillionaire. This freebie is inspired by her garden. She had a wonderful green thumb, and had this incredible garden that bordered the sidewalk for a good thirty feet. It was her mother's garden before that - and my earliest memories of the lake were of having to walk off of the sidewalk to avoid the bees hidden in the flower bed.

So I present to you my latest freebie kit, Millie's Garden: jam packed with bright colors, doodle flowers, frames, some sheer tissue papers and an alpha. I hope you will check it out.
Grab this freebie here : MILLIE'S GARDEN KIT

But please leave me some feedback somewhere - you know I am just learning and would love to hear how I am doing. I would also love to post any layouts you create with this kit.

Creative team news :(

I decided (begrudgingly) to step down from two of the Creative Teams that I am on, at least for now. I needed to make some adjustment in my life and it was just time. It is a necessary change right now, but perhaps I will be able to come back in the summer when school has let out. We shall see!

In the meantime, I am still scrapping and still learning to design. I have so much wonderful feedback from everyone on the kits I have created so far, and I really like it. This might be that creative outlet I have been searching for. I am working on an idea that is a spin off from UNDER MY PILLOW, but totally different. That is what I am doing today.

A few people have already suggested to me that I may be able to sell the kits, which is very complimentary since I am not sure they are 'worthy' yet. I am nervous about that, because I have heard of some designers getting flack when they turn from freebies to $$$ kits. By flack I mean, people actually telling them their kits are good enough to download for free, but not good enough to pay for. I would like to sell eventually. I have a group of people around me who I trust, and they will not steer me wrong. We will see how it plays out down the road.

On that note and going back to the whole - you are good enough for a freebie but not to buy, I have to say how much easier to be blunt like that and hurt someones feelings on the net. I think people wouldn't say HALF of the things they say if they were face to face! If you really feel that way, don't download it and go away to the many other people giving shit away. I am pretty outspoken actually, but I would NEVER intentionally hurt someone. I think most people are like that in real life, but online - that's another whole ball game. People type anonymous comments and just think they can hide behind their computers. It hasn't happened to me yet, but I am sure it will!

Presenting: Under My Pillow

I asked my friend Heather what kind of kit she would like me to try to design next. I was in need of some direction to go. I started three or four kits but none had a theme yet. She had a great plan, and I ran with it. I was trying not to be too cheezy - but here is my latest freebie!

So, I present to you : Under My Pillow

Enjoy! Please don't forget to leave me some feedback or even send me your layout. I love posting them on my blog!!

Grab the UNDER MY PILLOW papers here.

Grab the UNDER MY PILLOW elements here.

Another Summer Cottage Layout !!!

Sorry I have been scarce, I have been working on a new kit :) It will have a extra element pack of first lost tooth items. I really like how its turning out - so I hope everyone will too :)

Here is another Summer Cottage Layout that I got from another fellow July momma, Leslie. Thank you Leslie for sending me your layout. It is amazing!

Excited - and a new layout with Coffee Talk!

So, I am thrilled to report that within the past few days I have had over 300 hits on my blog and about 130 downloads of the Summer Cottage kit. That is way more than I expected, and I couldn't be more stoked than I am right now.

Here is a layout created by my friend Heather - she used the Coffee Talk kit to scrap her two pooches! How adorable are they, all cuddling up in the bottom photo! The alpha she used is from The Promise kit by Shabby Princess.

Summer Cottage

Here is my second kit... I am really attached to this one. It was inspired by my family's summer cottage on Lake Erie. Please enjoy and send me any layouts you create with this kit, I would love to see them!

Click here for my new freebie - SUMMER COTTAGE.

Coffee Talk Layout

I got another layout made from my first kit COFFEE TALK. It really is extremely exciting to see the layouts made with a kit I made. I am so tickled. This amazing one came from my friend Angiee! She took these pictures from inside and used enhancements to get rid of that 'inside glass' look of the picture. She is extremely talented, and I am so proud to post something she made on my blog! Thanks A! You can check out her blog here!


I still hope to get more. So, if you downloaded my kit - please, please send me a link so I can see what wonderful things you did with it!