What's up blogging world?

I don't think I ever really have visitors here but it doesn't matter, I still update more so for myself (and maybe my kids to read later on in life).

It's been a while since I've posted anything. My life has gotten a heck of a lot busier than it use to. So much so that I don't even have the time (or determination) to scrapbook and we all know that's one of my biggest passions. But life has turned a nice sharp corner for my family. I've changed jobs and it's been for the better. Great company, close to home, more money...all that jazz. Noah starts Kindergarten in a few short weeks and life for us as we know it (or should I say as we knew it for the last 4 years or so) has drastically changed. I hope to post more often again, like when I remember I even have the darn thing.

In honor of such great changes happening in our life, I have searched for a cute site for blog backrounds and found www.thecutestblogontheblock.com and have added some dimension to my blog. It's a welcome change!

Altered ATG

An ATG is a huge gun like tape dispenser that holds TONS of adhesive on a huge roll. This is wonderous for a scrapper who gets tired of running out of teeny tiny adhesives while in the middle of a project. This gun is normally used by framers (for pictures), but has become a huge tool for scrapbookers. I was fortunate to receive one for Christmas from my mom, however the big thing is to try and alter it (make it your own style). It starts out looking like a regular tape dispenser in it's canary yellow state (see example below). I frequent the message boards at cricut.com and was seeing all the great ways some really crafty women were "altering" their guns. Well, monkey see, monkey do (see completed pics below)!

Original state:

Altered state (backside):



Altered state (front side):



I can finally say that I'm a crafter now and not just a scrapbooker :o)

Back to the Doctors again...

Just a quick update that I went back to the doctors office yesterday due to the fact that my throat is still bothering me. It still hurts to swallow and I began getting an earache that hurt like the dickens. Finally got them to prescribe antibiotics AGAIN. 2nd time in 3 wks. Keep your fingers crossed for me that it works and that it stays away for good this time. Thank you!

OUTTA my scrapping slump!!!! :o)

I'm just so excited that I'm out of my scrapping slump. I finally got the courage to just dive in and use PageMaps as a template for my LO. I'm SO happy I took the dive. I feel like I've finally got a great start to working on my wedding LO's...and we've been married 5.5 yrs, lol. I can't wait to continue using the sketches from PageMaps. It was definitely worth the time to print out every sketch they have to date on their website...that's going back to April of 2004, when I'm assuming the creator began the website. I'm going to make sure to link it to my blog, I feel it's that worthy.

Title is done with both Printing 101 & Teardrop. White portion of the flowers are from AE, then a blue prima and the brad was a silver brad that I tried melting and then embossing! It came out awesome. I used a white glitter embossing powder just hoping that it would come close enough to match the white glitter paper I used for the flower and I think it came out looking pretty much like the same white glitter color. White backround with the scallops was done with AE & a square from George (this is for those who are scrapping savvy and know what all this gibberish is about, lol).



Close up of the flower(s):



I had planned to continue on my crafting streak, but as we had a busy, non stop day clearing out clothes that no longer fit my children, laundry, a host of other house chores, then BBQ'ing and spending the day in the pool (we had to take advantage of our unusually hot April day), I'm SO pooped I think I'll just wait for tomorrow when I have more energy. It's not even 8:30pm here as I type this and I'm seriously considering going to bed...so off I go!

Update

It is NOT strep! Praise halleluia!!! However I still have pain when swallowing and I've been told it could possibly be a yeast infection from the recent antibiotics I took...Ok gross and I had NO clue you could get that any where other than in a woman's hoo hoo. I was also told to continuously take motrin, 800mg, for pain as needed. And boy have I been needing lots. Should have insisted on Rx for it, but either way it helps for bits at a time.

See my "Sick of being SICK!" post

Because I've got the freaking strep AGAIN! Exactly 2 weeks to the day that it started the last time it started again. I'm heading to the docs for some of that awesome antibiotics that helped me the last time. Except this time I know what it is and I can stop it from getting as bad as it was the last time. Oh and I got it again, most likely because it didn't dawn on me that I should probably throw away my toothbrush!!! Eh, it was my first time ever battleing strep so how the heck was I too know? Oh well...live and learn.

April Fools...

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS! Was planning of freaking out my husband in some way, but since he's feeling a bit sick now too I think I'll pass.

I'd love to read comments on any funny April Fools jokes you played on someone or that has been played on you.

Sick of being SICK!

I'm fed up with it! Since the end of Februaray I can't seem to shake being sick. I was sick with the flu at the beginning of March, thrown a couple prescriptions my way and told if I don't get better in a few days fill them and take as directed. I began to feel better a couple days later, so felt I should save my $30 in copays for something more important like, oh I don't know, scrapbook supplies :o)! All month long I'd been trying to coordinate a trip to Sea World with some friends. Our nephew, who works there, gave us some tickets back in December for a final end of season Hoorah! trip with Noah's soccer team. It was rained out that day, game was cancelled and we did Chuck E. Cheese instead. So here we were with free tickets and any chance to go before 3/31. I completely forgot about them until Feb (go figure). Then I was busy with other stuff that by the time I got a couple friends willing to join us it was already late March. So we choose the very last weekend of March (couldn't let those passes go to waste) and wouldn't you know that that very week before our excursion I start feeling a tickle in my throat that slowly progressed to pain when swallowing. I was determined to make the trek and enjoy a beautiful sunny San Diego day with our friend Shamu, so we went. Kids had a blast, tired them out galore, got some great pics of the kids playing with sea creatures and I began to feel worse. I was actually feeling pretty darn good until just before we left. By the time we got home I could barely swallow my saliva, it felt like shards of glass trickling down my throat. I forced myself to eat dinner (man I was hungry!) and I think that was the hardest time I've ever had eating chicken and mash potatoes! MASHED freaking POTATOES even hurt going down. I'd never felt this kind of pain in my life. I mean I've had sore throats before but nothing like this EVER (well that I can remember, lol). So I did some research and it sounded like I had streptococcus, aka strep throat. I was in such agonizing pain that I was ready to have my husband take me to urgent care when I remembered the prescription I was given at the beginning of the month. I knew it was for anitbiotics I just wasn't sure what they were for. I had the flu, a sore throat and some body aches, but I really thought it was stretching it that they would be good for strep. I dug through my car like a mad women, weeding through preschool papers and projects of Noah's, flinging them around but reminding myself I needed to get those in his "memory box", begging God to let me find that white piece of gold fast. It was tucked away in the console of my car! Subconciously, I must have "hidden" it away for the in case I need them (the last time). I run (as fast as a fluffy women like myself can, ha ha ha) back up the stairs to the house and over to the computer to begin my research. The antibiotics that was written was for azithromycin. By the end of my research I find that coincidentally, it's a perfect match for strep (doc must have thought I could have been coming down with it the last time but I never did). I beg my husband to go get it filled at Rite Aid immediately and I think God was looking down on me at that very moment. When Brian returned he says, "Good thing I got there when I did. They were just closing at 7". He left the house at just past 6:45! I'm now feeling much better, still a small bit of pain when swallowing, but NOTHING like it was this weekend. And here I was looking forward to visiting with a friend on Saturday for her daughter's 1st birthday party. Sadly, I don't think we're going to make it as even though I'm feeling better, I don't know what the contagious period is for strep and the last thing she needs is her or her 1 & almost 3 year old coming down with it because of me...Now I'm just praying my kids don't get it either :o(

Some "older" creations

Since I'm back up and running with my blog and I've changed around the name of it (use to be spotlessmommy.blogspot) to reflect more of my personal hobbies besides just my kids I thought it's only right if I shared some of my older creations. I know I have newer layouts that I haven't gotten around to taking pictures of, so I'll have to save that for another time. Right now I'll just stick to a few I have available on my work computer.

This is our family code of arms(one of my album starter pages):

This is one of my first LO's (layouts) I created all on my own with no help when I was still learning:

One of the 2 page LO's I did for my Bridal Shower:

Another 2 page LO from my bridal shower:

My very first 2 page LO ever done, which got me hooked on scrapbooking!


That's all I have the time to share for now since it's time to go home...Keep checking back as I promise that I will continue to update more often and with more creations for those who are as addicted to this hobby as I am!

"New" Blogger

So for a while now (let's say about a year, just to give me a better excuse as to why I haven't blogged since January of 2007!), I've been trying to get into my blogger account. I haven't had the greatest of luck because now it's set up through a google account, which I did not have. This entire time I've been trying to create a google account thru the blogger account and I kept getting errors saying my password was not strong enough or whatever. So I gave up! Plain and simple. Today I was reading a friends blog and thought how much I missed it here and would love to continue with my now year long absent blog, when it finally dawned on me to create an account directly from google and then get into my blog from there. Guess that worked because I'm finally in and back to updating...it's literally been a VERY long time since my last blog...over a year to be exact. At least I'm back in and will update more often now.

Oh yes and since my last entry, I've become scrapbook obsessed, so I'll be posting my "works of art" here from time to time. More so because I can't get into myspace anymore from work which is where I usually had posted my stuff...at least I can get in here to show the world why my house looks like a scrapbook store exploded inside it!