RAK Winner!!

I took all the people who commented on my blog, and used random.org to get the names mixed up. The winner is........
KATI LYON! I can't contact you based on your comment alone, so you need to give me your email address so I can get your stuff to you. I will give you until Sunday June 8 or I will have to draw another name.

There were 40 items in your list. Here they are in random order:
27. kati lyon
29. kj-starre
40. destiny1
22. Carly
35. Harley Dee
24. Wendy
11. cutepumpkin
32. Scrappingirish from CK http://www.creatingkeepsakes.com/mb/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=97535
1. scrappin{jewlz]
34. jknapp00
8. craftyria
16. angie
33. Courtney ;-)
2. tigardlilly
18. june
5. pattim
37. Mistij
15. veronica
23. Gotscraps
36. Emcscrapper
19. tink13
13. tx-nana-scraps
10. retirednrse
4. scrappingrammy7
25. Nikki Heuston
9. scrappinnona
17. jan farnworth
31. Royce from CK http://www.creatingkeepsakes.com/mb/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=97535
7. kay
6. daisy
20. monkdabutt
12. scraphappy08
26. Scrapiano
30. Sabrina
14. scraprageous
28. Samantha
3. scrapbook obsession
38. Erica Hettwer commented on http://melonscraps.blogspot.com/2008/05/rak-update.html
39. jingle
21. Meggan
Timestamp: 2008-05-30 00:02:13 UTC
***I don't know why the timestamp says a different date and time, but I did do my randomization just after 5 pm on 5/29***

Out of a total of 44 comments, there were 4 that were not included in the RAK
· tigardlilly commented twice
· craftyscrapr opted out in AMR post… http://amrforums.altrock182182.x10hosting.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8697
· inara opted out in comments
· kay commented twice

Thank you everyone for all your wonderful comments. It was wonderful to hear from all of you, I hope you come by and visit me again.

All Night Long

SO, I stayed up all night and only got 2 layouts done! I have become a slow scrapper.

This one was done with Basic Grey's Blush Collection, Felt Fusion, Thickers, Jenni Bowlin Journaling label, generic large black brads, and Maya Road chipboard flourishes which I inked and used black diamond Stickles. The boy in the photo is a family member, and I didn't feel comfortable sharing any of that info online, so I covered names and his face.

This one also uses Basic Grey's Blush Collection. I cut out the branches, flowers, and leaves from a large patterned piece of paper, Thickers which I lightly dabbed with Color Box cat eye chalks, Glitz chipboard birdies, Technique Tuesday stamp, and dyes "skittles". The journaling is private, so I covered it up.

Here is a close up of the "skittles". Thank you Tigardlilly for dying them for me!

RAK Update

Today is the last day to get your comments in for my RAK, just comment on the post below and I will put you in for my 1st RAK. Remember, if you use Google reader and add my blog as a subscription, I will throw in a bottle of Stickles, whatever color you want! I am able to check how many people subscribe to my blog. Currently I show 3. If you are currently one of those 3, please let me know! You have until 5 pm Pacific Time to get your comment in and/or subscribe to my blog. I am very excited about this!

Also, tigardlilly has finished up her RAK, go check it out to see if you won! She had 3 winners.

My Very 1st RAK

In an effort to increase my blog traffic and get my "name" out there in the blogger world, I am offering my very first RAK ever!

These are items I currently have, but will purchase new ones for this RAK.

Included are some Prima journaling squares out of my personal stash, a brand new American Crafts Slick Writer-perfect for writing on photos and slick surfaces, and a new release stamp from Technique Tuesday, not even available for sale online yet!

I have been using google reader for some time now, but tigardlilly (who also has a RAK going on, check it out) showed on her blog how to put my blog list as a feed on my blog. So now, you can see all the blogs I have on my reader, which I check multiple times a day! If you haven't done this yet, you need to, it is awesome! If you subscribe to my blog , I will throw in a bottle of Stickles-whatever color you want as an extra bonus, I am the Stickles Queen ya know. You will need to sign up with Google Reader or similar site and let me know you added me to your subscribed sites.

All you need to do is leave me a comment. I will do a random drawing on Thursday May 29 at 5 pm. Thanks for checking out my blog!

***Many of you are having trouble figuring out how to subscribe to blogs. For those of you wondering, here are instructions to getting Google Reader and adding subscriptions. I had screen shots of all the steps, but I can't figure out how to save them to put them on here. Hopefully this will work good enough.

Step 1: go to Google.com and select Reader.

Step 2: If you already have a Google account, go to step 5; If not, set one up, it is free and you can use the email address you already have.

Step 3: If you need to set up an account, follow these instructions. Create your account.
Step 4: Once you have that set up and Google has verified your email address, you will get to the google account page. On the right side of the page, you will see a link for reader, click it.

Step 5: Once you are signed in to google reader, you should be on the welcome to google reader page and you will see a picture of a goofy looking man. Click the Get started by adding subscriptions button under the picture. At this point, you could go straight to adding subscriptions, or take the tour.

Step 6: Click the add subscriptions button on the right side of the page, highlighted in green.

Step 7: This will drop down for you, put the blog address you want in the box and hit add. There is your first subscription. It is as simple as that.

Step 8: Play around, discover what things you can do with reader. There is lots of information to find regarding reader, so you can learn all about it. No more bouncing around from blog to blog looking for updates. It will automatically update for you!

Happy Memorial Day

I was woken up this morning to the "fly overs" by the Oregon National Guard. I love hearing jets flying overhead. It reminded me what today was, and what it means. Though none of my family members passed away in the line of service, they did serve our country. So in honor of the military men in my life, here they are, looking very handsome in thier uniforms.

My Husband, Army

My Dad, Marines
My Brother, Air Force
My Grandfather (dad's side), Navy, passed away 1981
My Grandfather (mom's side), Navy, passed away 2000
Thank you all for serving the United States of America and Her people.

You are not forgotten.

Holy Scraps Batman!!

My scrap space reorg was inspired by the new file cabinet which I purchased in lieu of new drawers for my scraps with needed a home. Not having anymore money to buy before mentioned drawers, I emptied out my rolling drawers into filing cabinets, and VOILA, I have drawers for my scraps. Do you think I need them???

Trust me, this picture does no justice in portraying the amount of scraps that I have. Being the cardstock snob I am, I am separating my bazzill scraps from the rest of the cardstock. I have more sorting to do, I just hope it is easy to find scraps now, and maybe I can start using them. Most of this paper is old and ugly, but I am determined to find a use for it all.

My New Scrap Corner

So, here was my scrap corner before.

Here is hubby helping me with my new wall name.
Here is my couch and coffee table, covered in my scrap supplies that were on top of the table and shelves.
TA DA!! Here is my new space. It isn't a whole lot different, but I was able to bring a lot of my goodies out to make them more available, and spread my cramped supplies out more so it is easier to get to. I also pulled out my under-cabinet lights I bought almost 2 years ago, they really help light up my table.
These are my new file cabinets. Full of stuff already!
I bought a wire shelf system on clearance a few months ago, and just got around to using it. Unfortunately, most the hardware was missing, as was part of the rod to hang the racks on. I pulled out an old curtain rod and used zipties to attach to my shelf bracket. I know it is ghetto, but it works for now. This allowed me to make my own version of a clip-it-up using jump rings and binder clips (more ghetto).
Here is one side of my scrap table.

The other side of my scrap table.
This is the cabinet on the left side of my table. It is pretty much the same, just moved all my altered projects to the basket to the right of my new filing cabinets, and it is less crowded inside. I love this cabinet, eventhough it is ugly!
Just for fun, here are the boys, cuddling up in a box!

Another fun note, it hardly ever thunder and lightnings here, it is right now though. I love the sounds! I have my back door open, and am enjoying listening to the rumbling!

2 WEEKS??????

Has it really been nearly 2 weeks since my last post? I feel bad about this, I am so sorry friends.
I was able to actually scrapbook the other night, I have been out of pictures for some time now, but I found these pics of my hubby's family. After 8 years of being together, I still haven't met most of his family. This poses a problem scrapping people you have never met. I like how it turned out though.

I went to Staples last night to look for plastic drawers for storing paper scraps. Right now, I keep them in a paper taker, and that system just does NOT work for me. Anyway, I found this awesome deal...

...and it prompted me to completely redo my scrap area! Notice the original price on these cabinets! It took us 2 hours to put one together, and we still have another to do! I will post pics when I am done! BTW, my house is still clean!!!

Birthday Cards

Birthdays Galore! The 2 birthdays were only 6 days apart, but I was lazy and made the cards exactly the same. My hubby's birthday was last week, but my brother's was yesterday, so I couldn't post this card till now. I have been dying to use this Crate Paper Static line for some time now. It is so hard making "manly" cards and layouts. I think it turned out ok.

There has been a change in my duties at my store. One of my new duties includes customer birthday cards, designing and mailing. I made 2 different cards tonight, and am done for May.

This one uses Dream Street Papers.
This one is American Crafts.

Operation Clean Sweep...Day 3

I am finally DONE!!!!!!!! I just want to point out, that I couldn't have done this without my hubby. It is wonderful to be in a clean house again. I am so not going to let this happen again, I can't stand it anymore. So, here are the final pictures of my very own Operation Clean Sweep.

If you remember the disaster that was my spare room?

This is the once covered with junk walkway. Even the cats are relieved to have a clean house.

This is the bed, and made too! It was covered in Christmas decorations before.This had more Christmas decorations.
Notice the missing computers??? Now it is mostly scrapbook storage I am not using anymore.
That is it for the spare room, on to the bathroom!

Ahhhh, a clean sink, and I can find everything now!
I have a floor!
The laundry closet, CLEAN!!
AND, drumroll please..................................

Now I can scrapbook!!!

Thank you for sharing my cleaning journey. Now, all you need to do is check in with me once in a while, and keep me on my toes!

Operation Clean Sweep...Days 1 & 2

I was so busy on day 1, I didn't even have time to update my blog. Just like I said before, I have not scrapped anything, and hubby hasn't played any video games, though he wasn't happy about the plan. I have been working hard.

Day 1 involved picking up the Living Room. Cliff came home to 5 bags of garbage and this sight...

Here is my scrapbook table, covered in stuff to put away.

Here is my Living Room

Day 2

Here is my bedroom, Cliff and I worked in it last night.

It is so nice to have these rooms done. I am not doing the floors until all the rooms are done, so we don't track dirt, hair, and scraps into clean rooms. Today is Day 3 and we are attacking the spare room. Christmas stuff that is not put away, Cliff's computer collection (its got to go), sb storage, lots of odds and ends. Can you tell our spare room is our storage room? This will be an all day job, if we get done, we will do the bathroom next. However, we may hit a road bump...The NASCAR race this weekend is tonight, we might just DVR it and watch it tomorrow.

Operation Clean Sweep...Day 1

Ok, I am going to show myself in all my splendor-or NOT! Basically, I am a slob. I am going to share me, as I am in real life (irl). Please don't think bad things, the icky stuff always goes in the garbage! Problem is, my scrapspace is usually pretty clean, as you can see!
This allows me to ignore everything else and just play all day. That is going to change right now! See my lovely, clean, scrap space? Say goodbye for now! It is now going to house everything that needs a home, until my house is clean once again and the clutter put away! I will leave a tiny space for checking email and such, but I am cutting myself off from scrapping till I can clear off my table! What a reward that will be huh?!
For now, here is the rest of my house. If I can't be honest with strangers, how can I be honest with myself, right? I can't believe I am showing this, but accountability always helps me.....

Here is my Spare Room







Here is my Bedroom






Here is my Living Room

Here is my Laundry Room and Bathroom

Luckily, I have already cleaned my Kitchen, so you don't have to see all my dirty dishes!!


So, in closing, now that you have seen all this, I am still the same person, but will focus more on my house and use scrapping as a reward. A cool plus...my hubby is a video game junkie! I am adding his video game mess to my table, and he can't play games till the house is cleaned up too! Now that I am not working, at the moment anyway, I am going to be a domestic goddess, but I need lots of help, well, encouragement! This being the entire purpose of this post, honesty and accountability. I will post pics of my progress in the near future.