Kay, strange title but it oddly makes sense to me so here’s my ‘sunny-side up’ post. For some reason I find it the most difficult to post here when I have the most to say. I’m not sure why in my mind I have to have time to post ALL of it instead of just taking a few minutes to post bits here and there. I’m sure it has alot to do with a personality flaw of mine that I’ve been working really hard at changing and maybe this blog would be a mighty fine place to start. Even my own mom is threatening to stop checking this thing if I don’t update more often so I promise to post more mom. I love that she is so supportive of my creative endeavors. Love ya too mom. :)

So…where to begin. I’ve scheduled two more classes on digital scrapbooking at my favorite little cafe in town. I’ll be demonstrating the basics of putting together a scrapbook page digitally specifically for use in making a digitally designed calendar with your favorite photos but the same steps can be used to make any type of digital project. I have a few people signed up for the class already but the more the merrier so just e-mail me or show up to either class if you’re in the area and interested. :)

You knew I couldn’t do a post without some sort of visual, right? LOL Which reminds me of another thing I had been meaning to post about…Tracy Ann’s stuff at SBB. WOW! I am loving her stuff lately. Especially these and you’ve gotta check out this fun collection and the amazing color combination in this kit. Right now I’ve got my eye on this fun notecard collection and these great arrows. And the best part is she’s having a huge sale that goes through this Sunday so go stock up! :)

Other random stuff that I’ve been meaning to blog about:

Music

I’ve been anxiously awaiting this album and it does not disappoint. I love every song so far and did the first time through listening to it which is rare for me. I’m hoping he’ll be touring soon because I would LOVE to see him perform live.

And then, speaking of concerts, my boss and I are going to see Josh Groban in February. We got GREAT seats and I’m so excited. I’ve been to a couple of concerts with Mary before and although they were great performances and fun to see, they were both a bit embarassing to admit that we went to. Not the case with Josh. No disputing he’s an incredible artist. I was lucky enough to see him with my sister Tammy the last time he was in town and it was one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to. :) Yup, I’m a Grobanite.

Television

I haven’t posted about my favorite new tv shows at all yet and I’ve been meaning to for months now. My favorites, now that I’ve had a month or so to see if they held up, would be (in no particular order): Six Degrees (okay, maybe that one is in order by being my favorite of all), The Nine, Brothers & Sisters, and The Class. And then for shows that aren’t new but they’re on my must see list: The Bachelor (love that it’s in Rome and I think he actually kept 2 really great women through to the end which is rare), Grey’s Anatomy (of course), Dancing with the Stars (which is sadly over but I love that Emmit won), What About Brian and The OC. I know, totally random list and thank goodness for Tivo so I can watch these shows whenever I want and in half the time. Not to mention the number of times I have to rewind to catch the 15 minutes that I missed because I was having too much fun chatting with friends online or desperately trying to create a LO for a magazine deadline.

Reading

Kay, I’m not much of a reader (AT ALL). I buy books with good intentions and books that I know I would enjoy reading but I just never find the time and when I do I have a zillion things going through my mind and it’s just too quiet to concentrate on the pages. So sometimes you just have to recognize a weakness and stop fighting it. For me, that means audiobooks. Blogs on the other hand I seem to have no problem reading. How do the two relate you might ask? Well, I’m particularly inspired by Melody’s blog (which if you haven’t read you really should). And in her most recent post she recommended a book which I already own and I believe I even posted about it quite some time back when I purchased it and had good intentions of reading it. Well, I still have it and it is like brand new. The hardcover binding of it hasn’t even been broken in. The beautiful paper covering doesn’t have a single wrinkle or crease. But I know I just won’t read it so I found the audio version of it and I’m going to listen on my ipod on my commutes to work. Now, if you made it this far through the post and you’re interested in reading this book (while I on the other hand listen to it) then post in a comment here and I’ll draw a name and get in touch with you for an address to ship it to. A good book shouldn’t go to waste, right?

Okay, no promises to post more often but I truly intend to. I have lots of creative stuff to talk about and tons of great links to share if you’re looking for something a little special to give for Christmas this year.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving!

Kay, I know it’s been AGES since my last post and I would apologize for my absence here but my brother Dino made it known on Sunday how silly he thinks it is for people to apologize for not posting to their blog. SO, I’m not apologizing but I HAVE missed posting and I DO appreciate the fact that there are so many of you that continue to check after weeks and weeks of nothing new here.

Long story short, ‘cuz I have soooo much to post about, I returned from my Chicago weekend (which was SO much fun and I’ll definitely be dedicating a later post to that subject alone) but within 24 hours of getting home & trying to catch up from being gone for 3 days my laptop screen just suddenly went completely grey. Spent WAY too much time on the phone with tech support the entire next week trying to figure out what was wrong with it. Meanwhile, it was completely unusable. Then spent the next two weeks back and forth to the store with it having it sent in to their off-site technicians who replaced everything BUT the part that was diagnosed to have the problem. Finally after 3 weeks of messing with an extended warranty that was anything BUT ‘hassle-free’ as the brochure stated, I walked in last Friday with my laptop (which qualified only as a boat anchor at that point) and walked out with a receipt in hand for this baby… It’s exactly the laptop I would’ve picked out if I could get ANY laptop that they sold (unfortunately they don’t carry mac’s). And on top of that they threw in a new laptop bag and a new 2 year extended warranty INCLUDING accidental damage.

Also, on the bright side, I was able to back up everything from the old laptop in safe mode before it went in for service (unlike last time). And I have now transferred everything to the new one and I’m an even BIGGER fan of the ACDSee organizer because all of my work was not lost. Every single tag is in place and it works beautifully on the new machine. :)

I’m still catching up on emails so if you’ve emailed me I should be getting back to you by the end of the day. I’ve also had to set-up my outlook for my various emails for the store, etc. so if you don’t hear back from me today just holler, I may have missed a few in the transition.

Aside from the computer problems I’ve been busy sewing and getting ready for another craft show this Saturday. I’ve posted some of my favorite bags over on the Eclectic Whimsy blog and I’m offering free shipping on any order placed before midnight November 9th. The new bags all feature Amy Bulter fabric and they’re part of a new line inspired by our last craft show. Check ‘em out! :)

I was also able to finish 2 pages for the Digital Artist Magazine JUST before my laptop bit the dust. The magazine was just released and I honestly don’t know how each issue keeps getting MORE inspiring but it truly truly does. I was blown away by this issue (again!) and it comes with a kit by Kim Hill that has a gorgeous color combo, my new favorite stitches (that I intend to recolor when necessary to use them over and over) and even a gorgeous photo action. This kit alone is worth the $6. AND you have to see the featured photographer section. Unbelievable photos and a great interview. If you pick up a copy (and you’d be crazy not to) check out my LOs in the Thanksgiving LO section and a cute one of little Eva on the Take Four page.

Kay, I have tons more to post about since I’ve been savin’ up for a month but this post is already crazy long so I’ll be back with more in the next day or two I promise. Who knows, maybe I’ll post twice in one day to try and make up for the severe lack of posts. :) Not that I’m apologizing for it though (dino). ;)

I didn’t scrap a thing over the weekend but I did finally update my desktop. I decided after much thought about how to keep track of deadlines and important dates each month that the place that I’d see the reminders most often is this screen. I also figure I’m in photoshop enough that it’s not too hard to change it if something comes up mid-month. For the most part though it’s for the type of dates that I’ll know before the month even begins and the same with the major to-do’s or deadlines. Plus it’s always fun to have something inspiring every time I boot up the computer. So here’s the October one…

And you may notice I have a class listed at DeBoer Cafe on the 28th. I’ll be sending out emails to a few people who stopped by our booth at the craft show with more information but I thought it would be fun to do a calendar class for the first one. It’s a great introduction into digital scrapbooking with all the calendar templates available that make it so much easier and the timing should be perfect to give people almost 2 months to complete the calendars to give as gifts for Christmas. SO, if you’re in the area and interested in the class let me know and I’ll get you more information. AND, if you’re reading this and you have one of those great calendar templates I’d LOVE to compile a little list of links for people to go to during or after the class to purchase the calendar kit of their choice. I hope to create some basic calendar grids to have available free to the class but I’d like to offer as many options as I can. I have a few in mind already but I know there are lots more out there so feel free to post any links in the comments here or email me. :)

Kay, gotta do some sewing again tonight. Picked up some corduroy fabric on sale today and I’m dying to try it as lining for some new bags. I’ve also been working on some crocheted flowers – back a little later with some pics – but those will be showing up on some of the new designs as well. Keep an eye on the boutique site for some new bags tonight or tomorrow. :)

Personally I don’t think my music taste is wierd at all but I know others have said so. Mainly I just have a very eclectic taste for music. I enjoy listening to just about any type of music. With the exception I guess of classical and most rap. Other than that I can appreciate all sorts. I’ve been to concerts that range from Yanni to Fuel with some Reba McEntire, NSync, Sarah McLachlan, BonJovi, Josh Groban, John Mayer and many others thrown in. I would hate to be limited to just one style of music. So not only did I have to include an image for this post (see wierdness #1) but I also thought it would be fun to add some audio back up so if you click on my blog-pod on the right (over there —->) you’ll hear just a sampling of my musical wierdness. Enjoy! :)

I CAN NOT iron without steam. I had gotten a new iron when I started sewing (because sewing is almost more about getting everything ironed perfectly than it is about sewing the seams) and the iron I bought had a faulty steam trigger. It would get stuck and you’d have to push it and push it (or at least that was my way of fixing it) until it got unstuck. It was the most frustrating thing for me because I can’t live without that steam button. Just having the iron on a steam setting is not good enough. Oh no. I have to push the button. The beauty of the iron I replaced the piece of junk one with is that it has this ‘extended steam burst’ setting. You don’t know how excited I was to try that out. I mean I was ridiculously excited to have this feature in an iron. I burn my fingers constantly with the steam but I won’t give it up. I just can’t. I love love love a tightly pressed seam. Included in this little wierdism is the need to iron even my jeans. I don’t iron my pajamas or underwear so the level of wierdness stops at jeans. But hey, at least I acknowledge this as a wierdness, right?

And, I’m using this post for wierdness #2 which will also explain why I will be splitting up my wierdness list into separate posts. I really really don’t like posting on my blog without some sort of picture or image to include with the post. I do not know how to even explain why. I just can’t. You will RARELY see a post on my blog without a photo or LO in it. Which also probably explains why I sometimes go days without posting here. I may have plenty to say but if I don’t have a picture to go with it I’ll wait until I have SOMETHING visual to include. Crazy I know. Again, I’m acknowledging the wierdness of it by including it in this list. SO, I’ll need to find some sort of images to illustrate my remaining three wierdisms. Which by the way I prefer to think of as ‘quirks’ rather than wierdnesses. ;)

Kay, so please tell me I’m not the only one who can’t live without the steam button on their iron and can’t post to their blog without images. Come on, there must be a few other ‘quirky’ people out there like me.

yup, I do. :) Took 3 days of limited time on the computer but I did it. I created a page just for fun. :) You can find all the credit info here.

I am LOVING my new organizational system. I even figured out a way to use it to keep track of what I’ve used in the LOs I’m working on for a credits list. That’s always such a struggle for me. I think I spend just as much time after the LO figuring out where I got everything from as I do creating the LO itself. Not anymore. :) For anyone interested, this is the system I’ve come up with that seems to be working well for me.

I added a top level category for scrapbook pages. Eventually I plan to have sub-categories for my different albums: the neats, AAM, travel, etc. to keep all my full-size printable LOs in and then also a sub-category called web-files to tag the web-size versions of the LOs as well. But for now I added two categories/tags in that section for ‘in progress’ LOs. For me 2 tags should be enough because I typically try to finish a page before moving on to the next and rarely if ever have I had more than 2 pages in an unfinished state at the same time. So as I drag items over into Photoshop to use in a LO I tag it with the ‘in progress 1′ tag. Then when I’m finished with the LO I just click on that ‘in progress 1′ category and I can see all of the items that I used on the page. If I can’t get the credit info from just the file name I’ve found that if you right click on an image there’s an option to ‘go to file’ where it takes you to the folder that it’s from and then I have the designer info, kit, etc all right there. Voila! :) Gotta love it. HUGE time-saver for me. Plus I know I used items on this LO that I never would’ve came across in my old organization system. I LOVE mixing elements from all different designers so for me this is heaven. If you haven’t tried this software yet you really should. There’s a 30 day free trial and I think there’s actually a discount in the trial to buy it for $35 instead of the regular $39. SOOO worth every penny from what i can tell already in the 5 or 6 days I’ve been using it. :)

OH, in other happy news. I got my hair cut and colored yesterday and I love it! I was trying to grow the top layers and the bangs out like Sandra Bullocks hair in the Lake House. Remember this post? Well, I am NOT cut out for having long bangs OR long layers on top. Just looks lifeless and boring on me. I think my hair is too fine, or too thin, or something like that. So I had Kelly cut me some short piecey bangs (like what I had in this post) and shorter layers through the top (also like in that photo) but the overall length is still getting longer and I can STILL pull it up in pig-tails if I want to. Which I kinda like to do lately. Makes me feel younger and more creative. Crazy huh? LOL Anyway, no pictures to show of the new do but I’m sure I’ll get plenty next weekend in Chicago. :)

Kay, I’ve been trying to catch up on emails before getting to work this morning. Still having major issues with my hotmail so if anyone has emailed in the past couple of weeks and not heard back from me please email again. I’m considering changing my main email to my charter address but I think I’m more limited there on the size of files I can receive. I have the upgraded hotmail account so it’s so frustrating that I can’t seem to use it without having to manually check that junkmail folder every day for fear of missing something important. And if you know me at all you know my memory is not one of my strong points so missing a day or two happens far too often, especially with more limited time on the computer lately.

And, I’ve been tagged twice to post 5 wierd things about me so I promise to post again (hopefully later today) with my answers. Thinking about actually splitting it into 5 separate posts thinking that might get me blogging more often and my wierdisms are probably worthy of a post each. ;)

Happy Friday to ya!