Card Ideas For You Talented Folks

I know that some of my blog readers are super-creative people. More creative and clever than I could ever dream of being. So bear with me, OK?

As you are probably aware, I am a consultant for Creative Memories. Creative Memories is a Scrapbook Supply Company - but so much more - considering that your consultant is there for you for training, ideas, and whatever else you need. Anyway, I am frequently asked if we sell supplies to make cards.

Well, yes. And no. I mean, we sell paper which can be used for cards. And we sell stickers that can be used for cards. And we sell pens that can be used for cards. But ribbons? Stamps? Brads? Um, no. We don't sell those kind of things.

But I've been determined to find a way to use some of our products for card making. And I think I finally accomplished it.

These cards aren't complete - they need a cute stamp or two with a cute saying, a cute picture, a cute SOMETHING! That's YOUR job. But I found three tools that I think are useful for making cards. These four cards showcase that.

The first card is very simple in that the only Creative Memories tool I used is our new Tearing Tool! This item is so popular it basically sold out over night. I am hoping that I will be able to order some tomorrow... or at the very least by the end of May.



The second card is a little more complex as it uses the Tearing Tool and the Large Circle Punch. This is my favorite card by far. I will probably eventually add a torn-edge rectangle with some cute saying in the middle of the card.



The third card is similar to the second card as it uses the exact same tool. But it's far more colorful, a lot more crazy, and all in all, pretty fun. And maybe a little tacky. I like it though (it's definitely grown on me over the past few hours!)



And last but not least, card number four. It definitely needs an embellishment or two, but look at how the ribbon is woven in and out of the card! How cool is that? I did that with our Geometric Multi-Maker. I love the look of the woven ribbon... so pretty.



What do YOU think?

Owwwww!

Could somebody please grab the nearest sledgehammer and start hitting me on the head with it? Directly between the eyes first, and then on either temple... OH WAIT. It feels like somebody has already done that!

My head hurts SO bad... I was practically in tears last night from the pain. My Tylenol Cold & Sinus SEVERE medication is helping a little bit... but OH. THE. PAIN.

I am not sure if it is allergies (I've never had spring/hay-fever type allergies before) or if it simply the change in pressure that we've been experiencing since yesterday afternoon. I don't really care which one it is... I just want it to stop!

I suppose this is one reason I should be happy I'm not pregnant. At least I can take all the meds I want.

The Secret To Getting Out Of Debt

A friend shared this video with me today, and while it is old, I thought it was priceless. I want to share these great tips with you! (Unfortunately, the sound doesn't match up with the picture very well.)



Our debt reduction plan is going amazingly well. Our bills are paid, and we are making it to the end of the pay period while still having money in the bank. That is a very strange phenomenon for us. So try those debt avoiding secrets and see if they work for you!

Watch Out, Chicago!

The King and I have decided to "stimulate" the economy and go visit his family in Chicago. By the time we finally get there (in August), it will have been over THREE years since we will have seen his family.

Crazy, huh?

The plane tickets have been purchased, so it's official... Chicago, here we come!

The Princess is excited about flying on a plane again, The Dragon is a little nervous. I think she'll be fine though.

So... if you are planning on coming to Utah to visit and you were hoping to see us, you might want to call or e-mail us to find out what dates we will be gone. We'd love to see you, but if you're here and we're not... well, it might be a little difficult!

What are your plans for summer vacation?

Get Your Tactical Pants Here!

It must be The King's lucky week. I found another website that is right up his ally because they sell 5.11 Tactical Pants. I'll be honest, I don't know that much about them, but I really dig the zippers on each pant leg. One minute you've got pants, and then ZIIIIIIIP, now you've got shorts! Seriously, they ought to make them in kid sizes, because my girls would go nuts for a pair of these! The King would like the extra pockets. As a tech-guy he is always loaded down with miscellaneous gadgets, including TWO cell phones. I think he just needs all the pockets in order to keep his hands free!

LA Police Gear has lots of other products that might be of interest to you. My favorite section was the clearance section where I found this great emergency strobe light for only $9.99.

Shoot Me Now

The Dragon has decided that she cannot go to bed because she is not tired.

I tried to tuck her in because I am the Mommy and I know that she is tired.

She refused, so I left her in her room. Can you guess what happened?

She screamed. And screamed. And screamed.

She is refusing to "use her words" so, despite my asking her multiple times if she is ready for me to tuck her into bed, she is still screaming.

I think I have the patience to make one more trip up to her room to see if maybe, just maybe she is ready to say "YES" I want you to tuck me in now.

The King is not home, so I am the one who has to deal with this crap. I am not happy.

One Good Thing

YES!

I am so very happy and so very excited because The Dragon got into our school district's gifted and talented program -- just like her big sister did!

While I am thrilled about the placement because of the academic opportunities it will give her, honestly, I am more relieved that both of my kids will be at the same school next year!

*** HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF!!! ***
This year has about killed me with all of the driving I have been doing, trying to get kids to two different schools, plus a "computer" class, plus dance classes. It's exhausting. I am so happy I don't have to worry about that next year. I still might drive them to and from school more often than not, but I don't have to do that either - there's a bus they can take!

So, as a mommy to a future kindergartener and a future third grader, well, I feel old. And happy. Deliriously happy.

One Word

Lara of Overstuffed did this meme, so of course I have to copy her.

This is the "One Word" meme and to complete it...

You.
Can.
Only.
Type.
One.
Word.

Get it? Got it? Good!

1. Where is your cell phone? Purse
2. Your significant other? Standing
3. Your hair? Stringy
4. Your mother? Crying
5. Your father? Crazy
6. Your favorite thing? Family
7. Your dream last night? Dream?
8. Your favorite drink? Lemonade
9. Your dream/goal? Organization
10. The room you're in? Living
11. Your ex? Forgotten
12. Your fear? Death
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Happy
14. Where were you last night? Home
15. What you're not? Organized
16. Muffins? Apple
17. One of your wish list items? Money
18. Where you grew up? Utah
19. The last thing you did? Talked
20. What are you wearing? Clothes
21. Your TV? Off
22. Your pets? Stalking
23. Your computer? Dusty
24. Your life? Exhausting!
25. Your mood? OK
26. Missing someone? YES!
27. Your car? Dirty
28. Something you're not wearing? Shoes
29. Favorite Store? Wal-Mart
30. Your summer? Hot
31. Like someone? Usually
32. Your favorite color? Yellow
33. When is the last time you laughed? Today
34. Do you cry a lot? Depends

Boots, Boots, Boots!

All of a sudden, I can hear the sound of cash-registers swallowing The King's hard-earned paycheck (KA-CHING!) because I discovered this website that sells work boots!

The King loves to have a good, sturdy pair of boots on his feet (I'm almost always barefoot around here!), and these work boots are definitely something that he would appreciate.

On orders over $50, you can get free ground shipping. And some pairs of boots even come with free socks! That's a big selling point for me, ya know... always the bargain shopper!

So folks, if you (or someone you love) need some new boots in your life, be sure to check out Workboots USA.

The Tutu Guru

Oh my goodness. My friend Deana started her own business, and these tutus have got to be some of the cutest ones I have ever seen. She is super talented, and an awesome friend.

We don't talk very often, but we got caught up tonight, and now I am thinking that I need to buy me some tutus for my girls. Dang it people, these are ADORABLE!

So check out her e-bay shop - THE TUTU GURU - so you can fall in love too. (I think the polka dot tutu with personalized t-shirt is my favorite at the moment!)

Rest In Peace, Nemo

I've been jotting down random thoughts about Losing Nemo, and it's rather interesting to go back and read them because they really do read like a roller coaster. My thoughts are ALL over the place - sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes disgusting, sometimes angry, and sometimes I think they are just completely insane. I will eventually be posting them, but not yet. If this posts bothers you, you'll have to forgive me, but you'll also have to acknowledge the fact that it bothers me too. I won't go into details right now, I can't, but I have to get this all out, and you'll just have to forgive me if it seems like maybe this is too much. I really feel the same way. Here we go...

The doctor told me to save "the tissue." I really had no clue what he was talking about but said "OK" anyway. Turns out that "the baby" is also known as "the tissue." Oh.

Well, we saved it him "the tissue" the baby. And then I forgot to take the baby to the doctor. So Nemo, unfortunately, has been in our fridge for the past week.

We buried Nemo today. I bought some forget-me-nots and we buried him near the gate to our backyard. No crazy ceremony, we just planted the flowers and buried our baby underneath them.

This is the first time that I have ever really understood the peace that some people get from attending funerals. There is a certain degree of comfort in saying good-bye.

Rest In Peace, Nemo. We miss you and love you.

Smith's / Kroger Deals

Smith's is having a pretty good sale this week. If you don't have a Smith's, you might want to check and see if your local Kroger is having a similar sale.

I bought:
9 cans of Manwich
1 10-oz box of Milk Duds (yum)
5 bottles of French's Mustard
1 bottle of Welch's Grape Jelly
2 bottles of Clorox Wipes
4 bottles of Windex
1 bottle of Clorox Bleach
3 bottles of Shout!
4 packages of Keebler Fudge Shoppe Cookies
... and received .05 off per gallon of gas on my next fill-up.

Total spent: $17.28 plus tax (plus approximately .75 off of gas - not much, but still!)

I used $10.20 in coupons to purchase these items, so expect your total to be around $27.00 if you don't use coupons.

Want A New Friend?

There's a new social networking site that's getting more popular by the day - 3GB Community. You can blog, upload photo albums, chat with old friends, make some new friends, and even listen to the latest MP3 hits. Join some groups and chat the night away. There's lots of fun to be had, and membership is free!

Add some fun to your life - join 3gb community www.3gb.biz now!

Losing Nemo

On March 5, 2008, The King and I discovered that we were adding a new little prince or princess would be joining our family. We didn't want to tell everyone at first, and by the time April Fools Day rolled around - well, we just couldn't resist having a lot of fun. We left a lot of you completely in the dark, and completely confused, with the intention of revealing at the end of April, that yes, we were going to have a baby!

Everything in that post was true, except for the ultrasound picture. I got that one of the 'net, because at the time of the post, I wasn't in a location where I could scan in the ultrasound picture that was of our baby - "Nemo."

Well, little did we know that things would go terribly wrong.

Baby Nemo left our little family this morning at the early hour of 3 am. Our baby was exactly 10 weeks (gestational age) old. I actually thought that I had lost the baby on Friday, so I did most of my crying then. Emotionally, I'm doing OK. Physically, I've been better, but now that the bleeding seems to be more under control, I think I'll be OK sooner rather than later.

So, sorry for the joke. In the end, the joke was on us.

Love to you all...

Give Thanks!

As a child, my Mother taught me the importance of writing thank-you cards. Every time someone would give me a gift, out came the paper and pencils, and my Mother would make me write a nice thank-you note to the gift-giver. Time and again, I would complain, but Mom was relentless. Those thank-you cards must go out!

As an adult, I have tried to continue the tradition of thank-you cards, but I know I have fallen short on many occasions. It seems like I never have a really good excuse as to why it doesn't get done - maybe I don't have a card on hand, maybe the cards cost too much, maybe it's too much work to have to address all the envelopes, maybe I just can't find a card that says just the right thing.

Well, no more excuses! I found some great Thank you Cards online that I can personalize so that it is appropriate for me and my friends. Ordering in bulk gives me discount pricing. I can save time when addressing my thank-you cards, because I can have my return address printed on all the envelopes.

This is one of my favorite cards:



I think the reason I like this card is because it is colorful and it has a fun design. It would be fun to send to some of my friends, and it would also be appropriate for my children to use as a thank-you note for when they have yet another birthday party. It's also classy enough, that if I ran short of thank-you notes for my business, I could easily use this one as it has a simple yet elegant design.

When was the last time you told a friend thank-you for all the wonderful things they do? I know it's been a while for me. Order some thank-you notes (they ship quickly!) and start writing! I can guarantee you'll make somebody's day.

A Comment From My Comments

One of my friends just made this comment in my comments, and I really like it, so I'm turning it into a post! Thanks, ToniAnne!

The Atheist’s Holiday

In Florida, an atheist became incensed over the preparation of Easter and Passover holidays. He decided to contact his lawyer about the discrimination inflicted on atheists by the constant celebrations afforded to Christians and Jews with all their holidays while atheists had no holiday to celebrate.

The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the long passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel and declared, 'Case dismissed!'

The lawyer immediately stood and objected to the ruling and said, 'Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter and many other observances. Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah. Yet my client and all other atheists have no such holiday!'

The judge leaned forward in his chair and simply said, 'Obviously your client is too confused to even know about, much less celebrate his own atheists' holiday!'

The lawyer pompously said, 'Your Honor, we are unaware of any such holiday for atheists. Just when might that holiday be, your Honor?'

The judge said, 'Well it comes every year on exactly the same date---April 1st! Since our calendar sets April 1st as ' April Fools Day,' consider that Psalm 14:1 states, 'The fool says in his heart, there is no God.' Thus, in my opinion, if your client says there is no God, then by Scripture, he is a fool, and April 1st is his holiday!

Now have a good day and get out of my courtroom!

Checking Our Oil

A lot of folks can't understand how we came to have an oil shortage here in our country. Well, there's a very simple answer. Nobody bothered to check the oil! We just didn't know we were getting low. The reason for that is purely geographical...

Our oil is located in:

ALASKA
CALIFORNIA
COASTAL FLORIDA
COASTAL LOUISIANA
WYOMING
UTAH
KANSAS
OKLAHOMA
PENNSYLVANIA
TEXAS

However, our dipsticks are located in WASHINGTON DC.

Is it? Or Isn't It?

You know, I suppose that if someone were to try to make an announcement on April Fool's Day, it would raise a lot of doubt as to whether or not it was legitimate.

I mean, if you were the person to discover the supposed announcement, you would want to do the proper thing and say "CONGRATULATIONS!" because it IS really exciting news. But I suppose that there would be a certain amount of speculation because, well, the announcement was made on April Fools Day... so then you might be saying something like "CONGRATULATIONS! Or was this an April Fools Joke?" so that you can cover both ends of the spectrum of possibilities.

So the question remains...

Is this announcement an April Fools joke?
Or is this announcement really and truly for real?

The King says I should just post "April Fools!"

Sick... and stuff!

Obviously I haven't been doing a lot of posting lately. It's not that I haven't had things to write about, what with The King and I celebrating our 10th Anniversary, The Princess turning EIGHT, and just the day-to-day life stuff.

But I've been sick. Majorly sick and it has not been fun. For those of you that know me, well, you know all about my asthma/bronchitis/coughing-up-a-lung-disease. And it's no fun, it wipes me out, and I'm exhausted! Funny how that happens when your lungs are maybe only working at 75% of their normal capacity.

As you recall, I went to the doctor last fall and was given an arsenal of drugs to use at my discretion. Amazingly enough, until a few weeks ago these drugs worked marvelously! I haven't been sick (well, not much) since then.

So why aren't they working now? Well, gee... maybe because I haven't been taking them. And why not, you might ask?

How about a picture to clue you in:



No... that's not a picture of my lungs. If your new to the world of ultrasounds, that would be a picture of a baby at about the age of 7 weeks! Our baby, to be precise. Arrival is estimated to be around November 13th. We are thrilled of course, but haven't told the girls yet. Trust me, this is a wise decision - time goes by very slowly around our house (according to them!) and nine-months is a long wait. I think we can afford to keep them in the dark for another month or so.

All is well. I'm feeling pretty good (aside from hacking up a lung every couple of hours) and hopefully, in another week or two I'll get back on track with this blog thing.

I miss you all... oh, and happy April!