share your plans for April

re you done with Spring Cleaning yet? Are you going to play some practical jokes (or even pranks, LOL!) come April Fool’s? Do you practice Lent? What are your plans for Easter?

Yes I am done with my Spring Cleaning. I do a 'spring cleaning' 8 times a year and just did my most recent right before Ostara (Mar 21). I'll do my next at the end of April, right before Beltane (May 1)

I would love to play pranks on people but I'm not very good at it and don't really have anyone to do it on, except DH. I don't practice Lent or celebrate Easter because I am pagan. Our holiday of renewal was on Mar 21, the vernal equinox,when we celebrate the rebirth of nature & the increase of light. The boys and I went outside with drums and woke up the trees then we had a ritual meal of symbolic foods - omlette, spinach salad and new bread.

My plans for April mostly revolve around the yard. We have to dig out an old parking area and till it, fertilize it and the current play area and reseed. That's going to take most of the month. We also have to get started on prepping the rest of the garden and ordering some more trees. Plus I have issues with my computer desk that are going to need addressed with some carpentry.

reading

These are some questions from the Sweet Shoppee weekly “From Our Blog To Yours” event.

Amazon or brick and mortar? Wherever the price is best. I'll browse books at B&N and then look them up on Amazon and half.com & wherever the deal is best I'll buy. I'll also check my library for a copy as well.
Bookmark or dog ear? dog ear my books, bookmark library books
Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random? Grouped by subject but not alphabetized
Keep, throw away, or sell? Depends on the book. I keep the ones I love, sell the ones that are worth a decent price and donate the rest
Keep dust jacket or toss it? Keep
Read with dust jacket or remove it? With it on
Short story or novel? Novels and essays
Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? I've only read one book of each and didn't really care for either. Lemony Snicket if I had to choose
Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? When I get tired I read to a chapter ending.
“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”? Depends on my mood.
Buy or Borrow? Borrow if it is a new author or one I just like, buy if it is an author I know I love
New or used? Used
Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? Browse followed by recommendations followed by reviews
Tidy ending or cliffhanger? Unless it is a series I like tidy endings
Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading? Whenever I have time. :) I listen to audiobooks during the day in my car and at the gym and I read in the evenings
Stand-alone or series? I do either.
Favorite series? Douglas Adams Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series
Favorite children’s book? The Narnia Chronicls
Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? Dirk Gentley's Holisitic Detective Agency
Favorite books of all time? David Eddings Belgariad & Mallorean serieses
Least favorite book you finished last year? David Edding's "The Younger Gods". His first 2 series (Belgariad & Mallorean) were awesome. His second 2 series (Elenium & Tamuli) were very good. His last one (the Dreamers) was just plain horrible
What are you reading right now? Insatiable by Gael Greene
What are you reading next? I'm not sure but I'll probably reread Julie & Julia or check if the latest Anne Perry mystery is at the library

Sweet SHoppe blog prompts

1. If you could witness one supernatural event–whether you believe in the supernatural or not–what would it be? Why? I do believe in the supernatural. I'm not sure if this qualifies as a supernatural event, but it certainly is mystical. I'd like to witness an actual ritual at Stonehenge performed by the people that built it. There are a lot of theories why it was built & what was done there & I'd like to see the 'grand opening' events because I really would love to know why they built it.

2. What is your earliest memory? Why do you think you have remembered that particular event or thing? My earliest memory is of lying on something cold with a sheet over my face. I know I am in a hospital but that is all I know in my memory. I'm not scared or in pain. I'm mostly focused on the way the light looks coming through the sheet. I realize now that I am remembering when I had to get stitches in my forehead. I was about 3. I suppose I remember it because it was a significant thing to happen to you.

3. Pick a friend or acquaintance with whom you think you would like to start a new business venture. What business? We've actually discussed this with a couple friends. They teach yoga & one of them owns a bunch of land so the idea is to run a yoga retreat place. I'd be doing the admin stuff. I like yoga, but not enough to actually learn to teach it. Someone has to do the paperwork & that is what I am good at.

I wish someone had told me...

that disagreeing and arguing with someone does not mean you have to sever the relationship. You can be friends with people who disagree with you on things. You can even continue to love them. You can agree to disagree and respect one another's points of view. Disagreeing with an opinion is not the same as disliking a person. I don't know how many people in the first 25 years of my life I walked away from because we had one fight, one argument. They walked away as well, so its not just me who didn't know it. But I wish that was something that had been explained better to me when I was a child.

living room is done!

here are some 'after' shots



Please note, ifyou can see it, my beloved flat screen monitor is back :) It's new. They couldn't fix the old one so they replaced it with a new one that is actually bigger than the old one. I've scrapped 2 layouts since I set it up on Tuesday. :)

And now for the bad news. Yesterday I failed to miss a chuck of tree branch in the road. Hit it pretty much dead on the passenger side. Took out the crossbar on the underside of my car, which sheered the bolts out of the radiator. And that is just the damage I could see. Fortunately I was only a quarter mile from my house & made it into the driveway before the radiator really started leaking....ok, it gushed fluid as soon as I stopped the car. I had it towed to our mechanic that afternoon. Today I called and he says I'd better call my insurance as I have "significant damage' to the car and it needs to go to a body shop. DAMN! 2 weeks ago I got a letter from my insurance telling me that starting March 14th my payments were going down $10 a month. Wanna bet that doubles in the opposite direction? I called the insurance, they arranged for a rental car as I was bright enough to include that on my policy when we switched. I arranged for the mechanics to tow the car to the autobody place (Which is owned by a guy who used to work for the mechanic and is a customer of DH's company. gotta love small towns) I'd been told it would be 48 hours before an adjuster could look at it but he called me about an hour later & actually inspected the car before it left the mechanics shop. He also noticed a cracked front fender. The mechanic said my compressor had been damaged & possibly the transmission as something is still leaking fluid. Lovely. I just had that transmission replaced in August. Not being able to see the compressor or the transmission the adjuster did a claim for $1012 & is sending me a check for $512. If other stuff is needed they will just pay the autobody place directly. unless, and here is the kicker, the transmission is shot. Given the age, mileage and damage to the car (this is the second collision it's been in. DH failed to miss a heavy folded tractor trailer tarp in Nov 2002) they will declare the car totalled. We are so screwed if that happens. My car is paid off. We can't afford a car payment right now, not until DH's truck is paid off next Jan. we'll get at best $5000 for my car as a payout. I am so hoping there is nothing so significantly wrong with the car that they will call it totalled. I really need that car to last another year at least.

what I have been up too

I haven't been around much. I haven't done any layouts or any products for 1hourscrap. I haven't had a workspace for 2 weeks, with another week or so to go. We're finally getting wood flooring!!! It was supposed to be installed last week. So the week before I spent packing up the living room & moving what i could elsewhere in the house & then we were going to rent a moving can to hold the furniture we had no space for. Last Saturday we were ready to get loading when the guy calls & says he can't be here until next week. The guy is an old friend of ours. So I'm a bit peeved & decide that since the room is cleaned out & the furniture is already piled in the middle of the room, lets take the week & paint the walls. We picked out a medium golden yellow - pirate's treasure if you look on Lowe's and some chocolate brown for trim. The plan was to paint every night last week & get primer & 2 coats done. Primer got done & one coat got done & then we all had this 48 hour bug that kept us from doing the second coat. Saturday we go the truck, loaded it with the furniture & pulled up the carpet & tack strips. Today we were going to go get the plywood for the underlayment (it's concrete slab), but it's snowed 6 inches so far & now we are getting a sort of freezing drizzle thing. So we're stuck here. The other thing we were going to get was the cabinetry for the built in 2 workstation desk area DH is putting in where my old useless plastic shelving & odd desk were. I am so looking forward to that. Of course the snow means our friend probably won't be down tomorrow as planned, so that's another day of no floor. The living room is giant freezing echo chamber currently. Here are some pics of developments so far.

my computer area before clearing (taken by DS1 age 4)


the rest of the living room before clearing- taken this summer, we have new curtains now.


my computer area last week (I'm at the kitchen island at the moment)


the mostly empty living room


little boys painting primer


my work area in color


DH pulling up tack strips


I really hoping to be able to post next week pictures of a fully furnished living room with new carbonized bamboo flooring and custom built in office area. Or by the weekend after that at the very latest.....except the office area, which I am bracing myself for not being done until April. But here's hoping for the best

some new poducts of mine at 1hourscrap

I did some photo stacking quick pages


Some multiphoto quick pages


And some Love-ly word art


I'm working on templates that match the 2 quick page sets and another set with multiple photos.

Glory day!!!!

At long last, after 8 years of talking about it, planning for it, saving for it (then needing to spend the money on something else) we are finally getting wood flooring in the family room! Yippee!!!! We're going to Lumber Liquidators today to pick up the carbonized bamboo flooring we ordered. Next Saturday we go pick up the moving van we've rented to store our furniture for the week and then Sunday our friend who is going to install the floor is coming down to help us move the furniture & then get started with the floor. He'll be here about a week, living with us. He's DH's oldest friend and redid our kitchen while I was pg with DS1 - a 6 week project that stretched out to 14 weeks. He'll be sleeping in the playroom, which is where we will be during the day while the family room is redone. We have a family room, a kitchen, 3 bedrooms (one is the playroom & the boys share a bedroom) and 2 bathrooms. The family room is 1/3 of the house's square footage. It is going to be a big challenge to keep the boys occupied and out of the way while this is going on. DS1 is already suggesting ways he can help M with the floors. M has 2 kids about the boys age & has been renovating their home so I'm sure he is used to it. Hopefully he'll have a few tasks the demons can help with & then they'll be willing to go play in their room or watch a movie. Mel has already said we can spend an afternoon or 2 over at her house, but I don't want to impose too much. I'm thinking of calling DS1s preschool and see if I can't make some arrangements to have him stay in the aftercare program that week. They want you to sign up by month, for the whole month, but I'm hoping they might make an exception.

I am so excited about the floors! I have a construction kit around here somewhere, I think one of Christina Bartholomew's and plan on doing some flooring layouts.

combining things

I've done a fairly good job this week of getting my scrapping done and reading. I've completed a QP set for 1hourscrap, plus half a second set. I've got my stamps & word art uploaded. I've done 2 layouts for myself.

And I have read 3 books and am working on a 4th. These books are excellent! If you like fiction, you will love Jasper Fforde's books. I love wordplay. Puns are my favorite type of humor and his books are full of them. One of the characters in the books is the villain of a book called The Squire of High Potternuse. They are excellently written, well paced, have wonderful characters & the plots are engrossing. I not only have a hard time putting one of the books down, I have a hard time not starting the next one immediately. The one's featuring Thursday Next are better than the ones with Jack Spratt (and if you can manage it read the first 3 Next books before reading the Spratt ones) but all of them are highly entertaining. I am reading the 4th Next book now & hope to finish it tonight after the boys are in bed. Then I have the 2nd Spratt one.

case to convert former PC 80GB hard drive to EHD - $40
new 120GB for additional back up - $99
multi USB hub - $25
saving 98% of your data when your system crashes - priceless

Outlook's archive function - useless

been working on a new product

I was just going to make some word art but then suddenly "The MUSE IS UPON ME!" (guess who said that. hint: mel brooks movie) and I ended up making a set of 43 candy heart stamps in assorted colors & phrases. They will be up at 1hourscrap.com next week and I'll be running a special for Feb 7-9. A couple stamps will be the daily download each day for you to sample and the complete set will be 20% off for those 3 days. Plus they will also be on sale the first week they are up so you have 9 days to get these stamps at 20% off.



Now I am working on the 'love' word art I had originally planned on doing. That will be going up soon with a couple pieces available on the daily download as well.

one word

This Moment: exasperated (with the boys)
Your Shoes: slippers
Craving: silence
The State of Your Home: cleanish
Annoyed By: sons
Noise In the Background: sons
Really Want To: organize
Thinking about: shopping
Smelling: coffee
Favorite Product In Office Supply Aisle: notebooks
Don't Ever Want To: camp
Your Eye Color: greenish
The Weather: cold
Have Never Tried: bungee-ing
Think Everyone Should Try: sushi
Last Vacation Destination: Flordia
The Last Thing You Had to Drink: coffee
Your Bad Habit: coffee
What You're Going To Do Now: laundry

tagging is tedious

very very tedious, but I can already tell how handy it will be. Lately I have been doing layouts with lots of stuff on them, stuff from many sources rather than sticking with just one kit and tracking down that string of beads I remember seeing somewhere is a PITA. Plus as I was going through it I kept thinking "I have that? Why haven't I used that?" So I'm hoping it will cut my spending way back too. I've done all my 1hour stuff and am about halfway through my 'new' kits folder, which is stuff I have bought but haven't used. I'm dreading hitting the rest of the kit folders, let alone the embellishment ones. I'm doing pretty good though. I started with general categories and a 'various' one and every so often I stop & go through the various category & create more categories off of it. I'm not doing it by color right now. Just by description - brad, rivet, paper, ribbon, with some subcategory stuff - ribbon bows, square brads, word art on tags. The problem I can forsee is having too many categories to be useful for searching. We'll see I suppose.

Geez do I have a lot of flowers & floral things. I use some them on the boys layouts but I really wish designers would do more boyish elements - cards, vehicles, balls,tools, dirty/rusty things.

an up and down sort of day

On the downside...overdrafts worth $450 were posted. DHs employer had some glitch or something with their payroll people & the direct deposits didn't go through so they had to cut everyone checks. The 15th was MKL day so the banks were closed. DH was out somewhere all day on the 16th, so it was the 17th before the check was deposited. After 2pm. GGGRRRR...On the 17th his truck payment, our auto insurance & the electric bill were all auto debited. And they posted before the check. Fortunately the overdraft protection just removed the money from savings with no fees but it's still irritating.

On the upside...my new EHD arrived. It's so *tiny*. Its a Western Digital Passport drive. 120GBs, USB powered. I can so easily take it & my laptop over to my recliner in the evenings. Woohoo!! even better news, my monitor shipped back to me today!!!! It'll probably be the end of next week before it gets here but it is fixed and on its way back!!!!

I'm working on a quick page pregnancy album. I haven't decided yet if it will cover 4 week or 6 week periods. I want it to be 12 pages. 6 weeks would give me 5 pages for specialty stuff like the nursery, the ultrasound, the name search etc. 4 weeks would only give me 2 pages. So the tags are all blank & I also haven't decided whether to fix the word art or leave it on separate .pngs. I like versatility but I also want this to be an instant album - all you have to think about really is what photo & your journaling.

I've been doing well with my scrapping. DSP has had some really fun challenges and DSD is rocking with them. Between the 2 sites I have about 18 challenges I want to try to do by the end of the month. But everything is on hold now that I have my EHD. I've been slowly tagging things, but I'v been waiting for the new drive to really get going. ACDSee is now copying all my digi stuff to the new drive(its been about an hour so far) & I am going to take the next 3 days to focus on tagging. Now that the drive can come with me to the recliner or the bedroom I have more time to work on it.

Do you think you can sing? In front of people or just in the car?

No I cannot sing & I have no illusions about that. I've never been able to sing. I can just sort of carry a tune, but I have no range at all. I only sing in large groups where my vocal inadequacies are not that noticeable. Or when I have been drinking (And so has everyone else). I can't watch American Idol because I get so embarrassed for those people.

I've become my mother again

Tomorrow is Bunco night. The theme is the 80's. I can do the 80's. I am in fact embarrassed by the sheer number of clothing items I own that can be assembled for an 80's look. (and the thing is I purge my closet regularly, where do these wide belts come from and just *where* were those stirrup pants hiding anyway?). I have a few looks to choose from but I am thinking that the Flashdance thing is what I want to go for - leggings, a tank, scrunched up socks & a cut up, off the shoulder sweatshirt. I even have a sorority letter sweatshirt from 1987 to use.

Then it happened. I became my mother.

I got out the scissors, picked up the sweatshirt and said, out loud to myself, "Why are you ruining a perfectly good sweatshirt, cutting it up like that?" Which is exactly what my mom said 20+ years ago when I was getting ready to cut up a high school logo sweatshirt. Suddenly I was 18, in our kitchen, listening to Duran Duran, using my mom's "good scissors" & feeling guilty for cutting up a good shirt.

I did however continue to cut now as I did then.

What do you have faith in?

[i]"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."
Martin Luther King, Jr.[/i]

I have faith in the existence of the Divine. A higher power does exist & its the same being no matter what you call him/her. I have faith that the majority of the people you meet are good & decent people just trying to get through their day as best they can - just like you. I have faith in myself, that in the end I can find some way to cope. These things keep me going every day.

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In other news I saved up $150 toward the Red Dwarf DVD collection that I want. It is anywhere from $180-250 depending on where you buy it. but I'm also saving toward a new EHD. I want a USB powered 2.5" one. Something little I can take with me into the bedroom. My current EHD must be plugged into the wall & is a big heavy sucker. I was thinking of getting a 250gb drive, so I'm looking at $200-250 for that. There have a been a lot of threads in various places about 'how many gigs of scrapping stuff do you have?' which has made me really look at how much I have. I got rid of a bunch of stuff a couple months ago. So I sat & added up the digi stuff, the photos, the PSP stuff, the music & the audiobooks. Really, a 250Gb EHD is overkill. My 80GB EHD is not quite half full with all the stuff I have & I move stuff off regularly. I also have the trial of ACDSee & am tagging things so the EHD is on my mind. So when I found a 120GB 2.5" USB powered EHD for $99 yesterday - I bought it. I was going to get the videos first but I have them in VHS & can watch them in the bedroom if I really need to. It should arrive by the end of the week.

I got some new products uploaded to 1hour scrap. A set of quick pages & some desktop wallpaper calendars. They should be available sometime this week. The wallpaper is available in the standard 1024x768 and I also did a set in the more widescreen 1280x800 size as well. I have a widescreen monitor & am always having to resize desktop wallpaper.

not so perfect

You know those commercials for facial cleanser on tv? The ones where the woman with the perfect complexion is in a perfectly white terry cloth robe, in her perfectly clean bathroom, with her hair perfectly held back from her face in a perfect knot or perfectly smoothed back by a headband, no random hairs sticking up in little tufts making her look like a guest alien on Star Trek. She has one of those beautiful bowl sinks that look gorgeous but takes up all your available counter space. It's perfectly clean, no water spots or toothpaste smears, & is on a smooth equally perfectly clean counter top. She gets the tube for cleanser from some unspecified location (can't tell where but there is no counter space for it so there must be a hanging shelf somewhere), washes her face and leans forward, cups her hands full of water & in one perfect motion, splashes the cleaners off of her face. No water splashes on the counter or gets in her hair or dribbles down her arms, soaking the robe. Then you see her with her hair down, dabbing at her face with a thick white towel.

Why can't I ever wash my face like that? Even considering that I have no bathrobe, & my sink is molded into my 15 year old bathroom counter, with water stains, and none of my towels are white (and many are not thick) and my hair does stick up around my headband so I do resemble an extra in the Star Wars canteena scene (especially once I get the cleanser on my face), you'd think after a couple decades practice I would be able to splash water on my face without it going all over the counter, the floor & myself. Really. Cup water, lean forward, bring hands to face at full horizontal position. But no.

Describe your sleeping style. Are you a side sleeper, snoring on your back sleeper, wake at the slightest sound sleeper, sprall across the bed and sleep through an earthquake sleeper? Spill your secrets!

I am a side sleeper, generally my right side. I also have to have a body pillow to prop my leg/knee up on or I wake up in the middle of the night with a pain in my hip. I roll around a bit during the night. I cannot fall asleep on my own or stay asleep either. This has been going on since I got pregnant in Jan 2002. I started taking Lunesta for it in Nov 2005. Lunesta helps me fall asleep & for the most part, stay asleep. Providing no small boys come into my room, climb in bed and proceed to poke or kick me for an extended period of time (like last night for example). I am generally coherent enough to understand what is going on & can respond to things verbally if I am awakened in the night but physically I am like a drunk, stumbling around from wall to wall, grabbing anything I can find for support. I am not a light sleeper on Lunesta but not a deep sleeper either.

yeah warranty!!

My monitor is still under warranty!!!! I swung by DH's office & got a box for it. Now it is swathed in bubble wrap and packed in those air bag thingys Amazon has been using lately. I have several dozen of them. They are ALL in the box. No one is going to accuse me of shoddy packing! I'll ship it UPS tomorrow. They said if they cannot fix it then they will send me a new one. Given that the screen is all black with occasional green flashed (very Christmas light effect) I'm thinking I'll be getting a new one.