Happy birthday to us! -er, Shawna!

Shawna Clingerman ( of mylittlescraps, PDW and NDISB fame ,) is turning 26, but it's one of those deals where we get the treats! Yay!
(and Shawna --happy happy birthday, friend!)

My hint for your happy Monday-ing: Click on that link, starting tomorrow and you can download the kit in her ad above for free this week only, before she adds it to her store!

Peace out! --Kristin

mud buddies...

Ahh... I just love going back through old photos ! These were taken back when dd was 6, when irrigating with dad was a treat and not a summer job - ha! At this small size it's hard to tell, but they are both covered in mud nose to toe. Apparently, there was a water fight involved too at some point before they got home.

Click to enlarge

Credits: Almost everything is from Lauren Reid's "Cottagey Day" at plaindigitalwrapper (and I don't do that- 1 kit- very often!)= scallop, papers,'take time' word art, flowers, ribbon, UPC, file tabs, frame. "bonding" title cut with Arial Black font out of Lauren's paper and atomiccupcake.com grungy ink action applied. Also: Shawna Clingerman Swirly Dots brush. Tammy Moore - America The Beautiful Alpha (PDW). Green jewel bling by Jen Wilson Glitzy Bits. Hand font is 2Peas Scrapbook. Most drop shadows from Traci Murphy's actions .

Almost Friday! Cheers -- Kristin

my older son...

I do have one! Sometimes I look through my scrapped pages and wonder...! At 14, he has a habit of not being in many of the photos I take. Hmm... now that I think about it, I mainly see him only if there's food involved. ! which reminds me, he is a quarter of an inch under 6 feet tall. (!) I should find a way to work that onto this latest page ...hmm...

Click to enlarge

My "entry" for Team Gina Miller CT-lifting: I was inspired by Cat’s “Sixist” It is such a great design, and clever , I didn’t do it justice!

Credits a mile long: Shawna Clingerman Arrow Fun at ndisb.com and Linez alpha (U) at plaindigitalwrapper. Corina Nielson: About Me words, Skinny Jeans rivets, and Funky Borders @ PDW. Misty Mareda Brown Wrapper Alpha (e) at PDW. Peppermint Creative’s Foil Alpha (k). Kristy Ann Nerness (L) and Holly McCaig (dream button) Create kit. Holly’s number border in Memories at PDW. Joana Carvalho (brown paper) Cozy at digitalfreebies. Kim Christensen Fresh Squeezed (staple, safety pin) at SBB. Katie Pertiet Beadie Discs (seed beads)at Designer Digitals. Lianne Carper Pretty As Flowers (brad) 3scrapateers. Mommyish Designs PunchLabel Alpha -it rocks! Christy Lyle Tagbook Treasures as page template. Atomiccupcake.com: Graph paper, office form, and Simple Tear, Crumple, Foam Stamp and Cracked Paint actions. 2Peas Scrapbook font.
AND drop shadow actions by tracimurphydesigns.com !

Check those actions out if you are a digiscrapper - realistic shadows at the push of a button, and Traci's are always the best!

Grace! Kristin

Good Morning!
Isn't this one of the most precious babies you have ever seen?? (and, just so you know - she totally looks like her mother!) Thank you to my friend, Lovely, for sharing this perfection with me! I met Lovely through a scrapbook store in Billings where she sometimes works. She took Rene Foss (CK Hall-of-Famer) classes with me with her last $25 I think! She was soooooo giddy for me when my page came out in SSD5 magazine. She "gets" my fascination with scrapping -both paper and digital- and she is just as fascinated! I am truly blessed she is my friend - thanks, Lovely!


Credits: Jasbeanie Designs at jasbeanie.com: Kewl Beans #5 - Summer Surprises (papers, alpha, flower art) and Blooms (petals and bling). Shawna Clingerman, at ndisb.com: Elegant Date Stamps brush. I used Gina Miller's BYOBB from scrapbook-bytes.com as a template for the envelope I made. Jen Wilson price tag. fixedsys font ("priceless" added to tag), Susie's hand font.("welcome...."). atomiccupake.com actions: Paper Tear, Foam Stamp, Glass and Crumple.

Peace -- Kristin

New fun!

I am thrilled that the talented Shawna Clingerman, of mylittlescraps.com has invited me to be on her design team. I have long been a fan of her "doodles"-- exciting things are in the works and I am glad to be along for the ride!

My latest page, featuring some of Shawna's designs, a shot I took yesterday afternoon, and a phrase Mark can repeat 100 times in under a minute!

Credits: Shawna Clingerman, at Natural Designs in Scrapbooking: The Grass is Always Greener (papers and grass brush ) and Crayon Alphabet, Elegant Date, Going Buggy, Polka Flowers ‘Stapm’ brush sets.
Misty Mareda of thedigishoppe: Address Book Alpha and Brown Wrapper Alpha
Gina Miller, at scrapbookbytes.com: Finishing Touches trim
Lynn Grieveson at scrapbook-elements: Little Captain -topaz brads (some color altered) and staples.
Atomiccupcake.com effects: Chalked Edges, Inked Edges, Foam Stamp and Wild Tear.

Happy Monday!
Cheers -- Kristin

This is my next page done for Jessica Bolton/eclecticscrap's Photo+Scrap Challenge 3 To fill in the blank "i think ______ is beautiful" with a newly taken photograph" ...the love i feel for my kids, is a beautiful thing! Journaling says "When you fell asleep late this afternoon and I watched you sleep, I thought...”nothing is more beautiful than a sleeping baby.” And when that baby is my own, something about it just causes the love to well up and squeeze the breath almost right out of me... --April 30, 2006"


Credits: Jess Bolton: Almost Trendy (background, Lily's Lakeside Dream (ink overlay), Signature (stem and leaf brush). Michelle Coleman Happy Stripes and Flowers (love is frame). I cut the hearts from Jen Wilson's Altered Hearts. "Beautiful" Font is by Taran Conyers, TK Doodle. and journaling is Susie's Hand of Ali Edwards fame. Just Ad Inspiration.

TFL!!

Trying something different...

I haven't really settled on one style, for scrapping. But I think -- this isn't it. This page is the result of trying for a linear style. It didn't quite get there, and I'm not sure where it IS. Page done for Jessica Bolton/ecleticscraps
Photo+Scrap Challenge 2. I used pieces of her Signature, Lily's Sophisticated, Lily's Lakeside Dreams, Ordinary and Cool Jeans kits. Fonts used are Cry Kitty, Jaynes Print, DC Make A Wish.
Happy Monday! -- Kristin

My commute

I recently had to drive to Riverton for a watershed conference. A la my friend Terra, I took pics along the way of my commute...




Cheers! - Kristin

Oy...

...life is just one big party! (if one were to look at things optimistically) So much going on... Big Son going early twice a week to jazz band practice, Daughter going early a *different* day and staying late the other four days, for basketball practice... Little Son just being two... Me working days in the Lovell office and having three hour meetings at night in the Powell office 4 of the 5 nights, while we go through resumes, and have interviews, for my replacement so that I can increase my hours and get BENEFITS at the Lovell office. This week was just a...blur!

And in between this I want to create some awesome scrapbook "Works of Art" to do our memories justice and the awesome designer's ( Gina Miller and Jasbeanie Designs) work proud. And work on the local scrapstore Cody Craft & Scrapbook's Design Team - yay! ....And never mind the pile of books I have sitting on my nightstand! I may never read again!

A teeny bit of thrill ( well, that is a joke - it was a big thrill) was to be asked unsolicited-like, to work on a SITE's Creative team - Digiscrapdivas - because they say they've been seeing my pages around, and would like me to work for them. I have not lost my head here... this will work because I have a creative team assignment ending - Andie Smith is taking a break from designing to focus on her blossoming photography business. Got those two emails one right after the other, so that will just segue nicely. I am taking that as a sign, for the rest of it! ( Let me keep my delusions, thank you kindly!) and double the fun: Terra is going to be on it too!

So here is my first assignment for the digiscrapdivas: an all about me page (of course) for team's introduction page - I decided to do an abc's of me page, inspired by Kathy Moore's element piece in the kit:


Papers and elements from Priceless Benefit MegaKit to benefit Kids With Cancer Society.

Happy Weekend-ering!
--Kristin

Late Night Sillies

It's late enough on a Saturday night, that this made sense to do... (and I had to come back and change the spelling of sense from "since". Oy. )

...I stumbled on this on a blog: The challenge is to search only Google Images and see what you find for the following topics...

My Hometown : Powell, Wyoming













My Name : Kristin











My Grandmas' Names : Anna Mary







and Mae

















Favorite Food: Chicken potpie

Late Night Sillies, continued...

My Favorite Drink: Vanilla Frapp
















My Favorite Scent: fresh sheets














My Favorite Song: Pachelbel's Canon

aww, man!

...my sweet little two-year-old man just slid into the chair beside me, and after a moment said, "let's hold hands!" Okay!

then, "heabenly father, ah... thank you for your son... 'n jesus' name, amen."

awww...

You know it's 2006 when...

1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.

2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries. (well, duh!)

7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.

8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.

10. You get up in the morning and go on-line before getting your coffee.

11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )

12. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.

13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.

AND NOW U R LAUGHING at yourself.

Go on, send this to your friends ...you know you want to!

(Thank you, son, for the funny-- this might be the first forward I actually forward!)

Monday ramblings...

Hi - I am full of random thoughts today... Happy Martin Luther King Day!

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today."
- Martin Luther King ________________________

I need to do 7 loads of laundry. Did I not do ANY last week?!

Since I have the day off and am getting paid for it, definately have to scrap today!

Received my new Franklin Collages planner pages last week, and they are in my planner fresh and clean and empty - how organized that makes me feel in one fell swoop! So, I can plan *nothing* so I stay organized! Haha!

Husband, Dad and Brother are loading up and shipping out lambs today - wahoo! As Eric says, the only good sheep is sheep we don't have! So, it will be a good day for him.

My seventh grade daughter Elizabeth's first basketball game is tomorrow. Always fun to see how these "first-timers" play and improve over the season. (I speak from the experience of volleyball this fall.) Yes, Elizabeth plays and will play any and every sport open to her. And so far, she's done really well at all of them she's tried--> also swimming,soccer, & track. Yayhoo college scholarships! She and eighth grade son Luke are straight A students, too.(and he's a soccer and track star) They have been such easy kids to raise! Two-year-old Mark? Firmly in the two year old status... ask me --next year?!

Toodles for now! Enjoy your clean fresh Monday! --Kristin

Top 5 Movies...not!

...and I say "not!" because as I was making my list, I discovered I only saw five movies, in total, in 2005! This includes at the theater *and* video.
{I still call anything we rent "video" even though it's been DVD for how long??!}
{and, who am I kidding with the "we rent" statement - I have not even been *in* a video store for... three years?? It's Eric's thing, all the way}
So... this is not a Top Five list, it is The Five list.

This was prompted by my morning visit to Katie, thescrapbooklady's blog and her posting of her top 5 movies. And I thought, that could be cool thing to scrap. When I look back in like 10 years, it would be like a little time capsule.

The Five Movies Kristin Saw in 2005
______________________________________________________
Seen with my two oldest, as An Outing With Mom:

______________________________________________________
We rented this for a date night at home:

______________________________________________________

Another seen with the two Big Kids, because Elizabeth especially wanted to see this:
_____________________________________________________
I saw this one with my mother-in-law, part of a premier screening in Cody, Wyoming! because the book authors live in Cody. This was a big deal for my sister-in-law's book club, winning tickets for all of them to go, and they gave two extra to us. We "dressed up" and had dinner at Maxwell's before The Show.

_____________________________________________________

And this one, Our One and Only Date in 2005!

____________________________________________________

Katie linked to this cool listing of 2005 movies that I used to make my list. Thanks, Katie, for the inspiration!

One other list I made:

Movies I’m surprised I didn’t see:
Mr & Mrs Smith
Shop Girl
Bewitched
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants – because Liz talked about it SO much!
Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire
Star Wars Revenge of the Sith
Miss Congeniality 2
Perfect Man
Just like Heaven
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

If you make your own list, leave me a link!

--Kristin

Sign of the times...

ode to the exclamation point...

okay, has anyone else noticed the abundance of exlamation points in online correspondence whether it's email, chat,forum postings-- especially forum postings. Much more than the average use In Real Life, you think? Every other sentence of mine, or more like EVERY one has one OR MORE of the little lines and dots. On reflection, I believe I may be coming across as a bit of a frenetic chick, when in said Real Life, I hardly ever have a comment to make that would warrant one in a transcript. My case in point, an email I just sent Fiddlette/Christine/Missy C :

Now see what you enabled...I couldn't talk that long about mo's stuff and not go buy something new! I needed closure!
I'm downloading primitive scrapbooker as i type this. (SLOWWWWLY though - its over 300 mb!!)
and it is not what i logged on to get, I keep meaning to finally buy some of her froufrou stuff, like i want the roses from ashley!! and everytime i end up with primitive something or an alpha!
and I have to space my purchases out- these teenagers are expensive!! - haha!
Cheers,
Kristin
P.S. and i think i'm addicted to the exclamation point lately. i need to tone it down. i wished i'd proofed my interview for scrapmommies and taken out half of them. i sounded high on ritalin (sp?) or something. But see, I 've posted this whole paragraph and not one exclamation point. Physically sitting on my left hand.

Still am, sitting on that left hand -- see? not an exclamation in site on this posting. AND IT IS SO HARD.
Here is the referenced article in the Scrapmommies newsletter: I was the member profile for December (and that oh so needs an exlamation or two...) If you have not been to scrapmommies, it is the homiest comfy-cozy friendliest scrapsite I've run across. Read that newsletter. and come on over.
Whew. Not one (new) exclamation point. I can cancel that Overusers Anonymous meeting.

Cheers, Kristin

If you give a mom a muffin...

...She’ll want a cup of coffee to go with it.
She’ll pour herself some.
Her three-year-old will spill the coffee.
She’ll wipe it up.

Wiping the floor, she’ll find dirty socks.
She’ll remember she has to do laundry.
When she puts the laundry in the washer,
She’ll trip over boots and bump into the freezer.
Bumping into the freezer will remind her
she has to plan for supper.

She will get out a pound of hamburger.
She’ll look for her cookbook
(”101 Things To Do With a Pound of Hamburger” ).
The cookbook is setting under a pile of mail.
She will see the phone bill, which is due tomorrow.

She will look for her checkbook.
The check book is in her purse
that is being dumped out by her two-year-old.
She’ll smell something funny.

She’ll change the two-year-old’s diaper.
While she is changing the diaper, the phone will ring.
Her five-year-old will answer and hang up.
She’ll remember she wants to phone a friend for coffee.

Thinking of coffee will remind her
that she was going to have a cup.

And chances are… If she has a cup of coffee,
Her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

-Author Unknown


{and if for some reason, like you live on Mars, you have not read If You Give A Mouse A Cookie RUN and buy this book for a child you love (or even yourself - the art is scrumptious!- this book started us on a journey of collecting Felicia-Bond-illustrated books 14 years ago) (hey- that would be a good blog subject - great kids books - we know a *few* of those! ;) }
--Kristin

More screen time

My sugar and spice is Elizabeth: "In a household with three males, we girls gotta stick together! You are my sunshine, my craft buddy, my cookie baker...and as you turn 13, you're becoming my make-up borrower, clothes borrower, shoe borrower, lets-talk-about-boys-and-hair girl... I'm just so glad I have you!"
And she got a big kick seeing her face here!
And I have to say I did too - it is such a treat to come across something you create somewhere you totally don't expect it!
And, changing the subject, is it Friday yet?

* just a little fun *

Some kinda crazy fun happening over at Scrapkitchen. Here is my doorprize... or is it a posting bonus? -hee!