Weight Watchers

I started Weight Watchers last Wednesday. I'm doing the points program, which is cool. You can eat just about anything you want, but you have to count the points. The cool thing is Applebees has meals where the points are already counted, which is super!!! Emilee and I went Saturday night and I got the steak and shrimp kabobs, very tastey! I don't feel like I've lost any weight, but I didn't suspect I would the first week. I've been trying really hard to forgo the sweet, which I think are my down fall. I lost quite a bit of weight before our cruise in '03 doing the South Beach thing, but I just don't think I could stick with it ...... limited carbs and limited refined sugar. Really, portion control is the real deal. I still want my cheerios and my baked potatoes, now I just eat a smaller portion and top it off with something more healthly, like fruit! I'll try to keep you post: goal 17 lbs! Wednesday are weigh in days!

Address box for sale

Here's an address box I did from one of the white Provo Craft lunch boxes. Its all basic grey papers. Each inside divider has two letters on it. You can use the larger index cards for the address.

$40.00

Merry Christmas

Okay, so I'm a little late wishing you all a Merry Christmas.

I was off work Dec 22 - today (Jan 3). It was wonderful and I did NOTHING! Really. It was my vacation and I spent it exactly how I wanted to. I watched a lot of TV, stayed up late, played with Em, cooked some, ate a lot and scrapbooked a little. I finished up some thank you cards and went to Scrappuccino's on Wednesday last week to crop. I asked my friend Cheryl to come, but she was tied up with family, so it was just me. I got 3 or 4 layouts put together, but not completely finished. Still need the emblishments and title (I hate to do titles). It was fun.

Yesterday we took down our tree and I hurt my shoulder, so I'm whiney today, PLUS I couldn't go to sleep and was still tossing and turning at 1:30 (alarm goes off at 5:00) I wish I had stayed in bed all day .... good day for it.

For Christmas I got:

a vaccum
a HP 8450 Photosmart printer
tennis shoes
jogging suits
a "past, present, future" necklace
houseshoes
some clothes


Pretty good huh? I got a great family!

Post more later ...........

C Ya!

More FOR SALE!

Two more albums. The top, "Its all about Me!" is perfect for a teenager who's world revolves around themselves. Very cute, Basic Grey paper. $22.00

The bottom album is a basic brag book for a grandparent. Very soft, inking, using all Chatterbox paper. Very generic and purple is either boy or girl. $25.00

Paper bag albums FOR SALE part 1

I'm going to post a few of the albums that didn't sell at the craft fair. If you know anybody that would like one, have them send me an email. I won't post the inside of anyothers, unless someone is interested, but I thought this page in the Halloween album was sooooo cute! I got those monsters in a swap about 5 yrs ago. I thought they were too cute. Of course, now I wish I had copied them cause they are perfect in an album like this. If anyone has the pattern for these "Wild Things", let me know. Price: $25.00

Pictures that I promised

I've been trying to upload pictures from the craft fair ....... I promise. I think my pictures were too large, so I'm trying again with smaller pictures. These are pictures of our booth. Thats me and my mom!!! Our booth looked really nice. That was my mom's job.... the display! By the way, see the 8x8 baby girl book in the bottom left pictures, I sold it last week!!! YEA for me!

Christy

Sorry its been so long

I've actually sit down and typed a few messages, but they were so random that I ended up deleting them. Now, I can't promise this one will be any better, but I'll try.

First, to answer a few questions from comments. Sarah, yes, I plan on doing more craft shows. I have information on one in Franklin/Brentwood that I think would be good and maybe Davidson Academy's craft show (not sure I can get in that one .... Emilee'll be on their list next year). More affluent area(s), hopefully more money to spend. I really enjoy that type of setting. I'm not a huge salesman, I don't like to be pressured, so I don't pressure people. But since I'm passionate about scrapbooking, I like to talk about it when people ask questions. I think one thing that people enjoyed on my table was my Heritage album. Great old pictures and LOTS and LOTS of punching (started it when punch art was popular - and I was good at it!!!). I'm glad I did this employee fair, but I look forward to doing one in a different setting, at a different place.


Now, my next rant. Money ...... I'm out of it. This happens every year. I buy, buy and buy and don't get everything I need before running out! My biggest mistake was buying some clothes for me! They were so pretty and I REALLY needed them. No honestly, I did. See, I've gained some weight, so I have very few things that fit well (and I do look in the mirror before I leave the house, so I know when something looks good or not - unlike a lot of people in this world). But that put me back on shopping money. I still have to buy for DH, and both my parents. DH is getting a hunting camera thing he wants (cost $299.00) and thats it. He's already gotten one present earlier in the year for hunting. And my parents, gosh... what to get them. They are so hard to buy for because they just buy whatever they want. I guess I'll figure that out when the time comes to go shopping! (gotta wait to pay day now!!! - thank goodness thats tomorrow and Friday for DH).

See ya later!

I'll post pictures of the craft fair ..........

It's over!!!!

The craft fair is over. The jury's still out as to if it was successful or not. I mean, I didn't make a ton of money, actually I *almost* broke even, but are people more familiar with the different types of scrapbooks? Will they think of me the next time they need something "cute" to give as a gift? I sold one girl 3 paper bag albums and 2 accordians. Then I had one lady buy one then come back after lunch and buy another. I did sell my receipe box to a cute girl that's getting married soon. She actually called me Tuesday night at home to inquire about the other albums. She and her mother have friends that are having babies, so they were thinking about presents.

What's hard is that some people look at my albums and can't believe that they cost $27.00. They don't understand that its probably got $12.00 worth of materials and 4 to 5 hours of my time in it. If you pay me by the hour to make it, it'd cost $100!!!! They just don't get it! But I know its like that with everything ... from beauty salons to artist ....

What did we learn? (I ask my mom as we were packing up). Know your audience, which is near impossible. I could have sold 10 "friends" albums easy, but I figured more of the "brag" book type for grandmoms would sell. And don't bring your own money, other than for food. We bought two purses .... a quick $50.00 down the drain - but they are super cute!!!

I'll post pictures soon. I've got to do a little tweaking with them!

Let's vote!

Okay, I heard on the way to work the other day that Matthew McConaughey was on top of the list for People's Magazines' Sexiest Man Alive. AND boy did it make me happy. I LOVE Matthew Mc! I think God made him just so I'd be happy ..... seriously.... I love looking at him. I think if I ever saw him in person, I'd faint or die right there. I'm not normally star struck, I'm the type that usually leave famous people alone at resturants or what not, but I don't think I would be able to help myself if I saw him! He is just too good for words! Let's all go vote for him at People's site: http://people.aol.com/people/packages/0,19939,1113899,00.html.

Go Matthew!!!!

Phew ...... things are coming together (almost)

We'll the craft fair is right around the corner and I've got a list of things to get for the table and most are checked off. Right now our big concern (me and mom's) is our table covering. Being this is my first fair and really it's a test to see how it goes, we don't want to spend a lot of money. So, we're thinking sheets? I know, I know that sounds funny, but when is the last time you've gone to a craft fair and actually remembered what coverings were on the table? So, trying to be a thrifty as possible, we're thinking two flat sheets in a dark color (navy, black, hunter green, burgundy) and then drape them on the table puddling on each side. On list there is also, mini easels; business cards; receipt book; bags; price sheet (for me); candy (in Emilee's can) and a Christmas tree for decoration! Most of that is checked off. Everything else I'm getting Friday night (easels and receipt book).

I've got my price list done, now I just have to cut out tags (QK template) and attach it to the books and other products. Most albums will sell for between $22.00 - $28.00. And the paint cans will be $22.00. I sure hope they sell!!!! I really don't want to take anything home!!!!

Pray that its a success. I liked getting ready for it .......... just need to get tablecloths.

Samples for craft fair

I thought since you wouldn't be at the employee craft fair, I'd show you some pictures of the projects. I've uploaded only the fronts of the paper bag albums, along with a few other things. I have more, but haven't taken pictures yet!

The craft fair is right around the corner

Our employee craft fair is Nov 15. I think the paper bag albums are going to be a huge success. I've shown them to a couple of people and they are making plans to get there early to get what they want. I've also taken 7 orders!!! And 2 or 3 orders pending. As soon as the fair is over, I need to get started on those orders since they are all Christmas presents.

I've gotten the paper page album making down to a science now. It takes me about 4 hours to make one 12 page book. Thats a huge improvement from the 8 hours for one it was taking me.

For the fair I've also got 2 paint cans, a receipe box, 3 accordian albums, 2 8x8 books and 3 clipboards for sale. I'm getting ready to start on another paint can (birthday) and hopefully get another clipboard done (but I'm not pushing it!). I'd also like to get 2 more baby (unisex) paper bag albums done. Those should go pretty fast. I've got the paper cut and I won't use too many words. These are more for brag books.

Tracie & Sarah, I think I fixed my comments, didn't know it was password protected .... sorry!!

Halloween .............

Emilee was Belle from Beauty & the Beast. It was a dress, crown and shoes we bought in Disney in May. She wanted it to wear for her Cinderella breakfast at the castle, but we made her promise to wear it for Halloween too. She agreed. She looked so beautiful. We curled her hair and I pulled it put to make some of it stand up above the crown like Belle and then we did her lips, cheeks and eyes a little. She even wore my grandmothers white gloves. She looked so cute!!!! I'll post pictures when I get some downloaded.

We hit a few houses and then off the church carnival, which was PACKED. We go to one of the largest churches in Joelton and they went all out! Her little paint bucket was filled to the bream by the time we got finished with the four row of trunks. She (I) got tons of compliments on her Belle can. She had a really good time!

Here's some pictures for Tracie C ....... she was trying to take pictures of the pretty afternoon glow of her darling daughter. She didn't get what she was trying for, but I think timing is the key. I don't usually try for pictures, they just happen. These are two of my most recent favorites.

This picture was taken Sunday around 4:00 (after the Titan game) The sun was pretty bright, but she looked so cute, I couldn't resist. She was enjoying her Dippin' Dots!!!

This one was made around 2:30 on a hazy/sunny day. I thought the coloring was very pretty.

This is the weekend ..............

This weekend my daughter, 8 yrs old, will be dancing in front of 60,000 people at the Titans football game! She'll be front row, home side on the 50 yrd line! I can't believe it! What a great place to be dancing during a half-time show. BUT, I'm so nervous for her!!! I know she'll do great, she's a born dancer. She loves it. I asked her yesterday if she was excited and I can tell that she is, but she said she was nervous too! I told her just to remember, out of those 60,000 only about 10 actually know her and know what she looks like. I also told her to imagine all of us sitting in the stands in our underware (hoping to keep the smile on her face!) She knows the dance pretty good ...... and she's so engeric doing it. Lets jus pray that she doesn't see all those people and freeze!

Break a leg Emilee!!!!

Being a parent is hard ............

My DD is full of personality. I don't think she's ever had a problem fitting in. She walks up the play area at McDonalds and just starts playing with the kids. In gymnastics, she just walks in and immediately fits into the class. This is great ........ but in school, its not so great! She wants to worry about everyone else in her class, except her. She wants to make sure everyone is doing what they are suppse to do, except her. And she loves to talk (if you've known me all my life, you'd know I got in trouble for this in school also, as did DH and my parents ... we're all social!) and is a social butterfly. So, sometimes she doesn't listen very well and misses things, like, take home your social studies work, you're having a test in two days! So guess what, she failed that test! YUP, a F!!! And the problem in Metro schools (at least our 3rd grade class) is that they only do Social Studies for 3 weeks and then Science for 3 weeks. So if you make a big fat LOW F on a test, then you're pretty much dog meat when it comes to report cards. DD brought home a D in Social Studies!!! I lost it! I couldn't believe she made a D. I think I was in middle school before I ever brought home a D. So now what? DD is involved in cheerleading and gymnastics, things in which I pay for! So I hate to take her out or cause her to miss.... that costs me money! So she's grounded for 3 weeks, no cartoons, no Disney channel, no telephone, no playing after practice, no girlfriends coming over to play, and she might sit out 1/2 of the ball game Saturday (haven't decided) AND she had 3 pages of extra Math work on homework nights (she struggles in Math). Other than the D, she made two A's, a B and a C. AND she's reading on almost a 4th grade level (which is very good!) Whew, parenting is hardwork!!!

I've got a question for all of you who just might be reading...... when you go to a craft fair, do you care what kind of sack you get to carry you purchases in? If I plan to buy a lot, I usually take my own. But I'm trying to decide if I need to make a clear bag purchase for the employee craft fair, or just use "Walmart" bags. The albums I'll be making will be in ziploc bags for protection, but I've been told not to use Walmart bags, that looks cheap (which isn't what I'm going for, but I don't want to spend a ton on bags either), so what do you think?

Just some ramdom thoughts ............

Tracie got me thinking about what I could blog about today. 1) Days of Our Lives 2) my camera 2) husbands 3) scrapbooking.

1) As noted in another blog, I love Days of Our Lives. I have forever. But since I work full-time, I have to keep up with it via-written pulications and blogs. I love the early edition blog (http://theearlyedition.blogspot.com/) I LOVE getting the information the day before. That way I don't have to watch the reruns on the Soap Opera network on our DirectTV system. For those who don't watch, skip ahead to #2, cause you're going to be lost. Now, I think Marlena is a great actress but her story lines lately totally suck! I love have the original Roman back on the show, but now I'm so confused having 3 "Romans" all at once. Can one family do such things has hide people, brainwash them, keep them captive for so long as the DiMera's? And then there's Sami. Poor thing. Allison seems to be such a nice, sweet girl with a new cute baby, but her character can't catch a break. I mean, I know that she brings a lot of of it herself, but I'd love to see her truly happy just once. And Bo and Hope ... what is up with them. Bo is being such a typical male ... letting all the women in his life rule him and not listening to the one that matters the most. Belle and Shawn ... you know that baby is going to be his! There will be some need for blood work and the baby will be Shawns and you know, they don't remember actually "doing it" so everyone's going to be in a tisy! How could that happen? We'll you're big people, you know how it happens .... and no, it's not the DiMera's!!!!! Oh yea, how many times can Jack die and come back to life? He must be part cat with 9 lives. But I'm actually looking forward to Jennifer and Frankie ... he's such a cutie. AND that brother of his.... wow, he's another looker! I'm so totally wrapped up in this "family" that I have to remind myself all the time ........ its not real, the stories are suppose to be "fun", that is just to entertain us... even when it doesn't make a bit of sense!!!

Days of Our Lives, can't live with it, can't live without it!!!


2) Oh yea, about my camera. We'll, DH got me a Minolta Dimage Z3 for Christmas, although I gave him some money to buy it for me, because it was almost $500 and we don't normal spend that much on each other. So I really bought myself a camera for Christmas. He gave it to me in November so I could practice and figure out how to use it because Christmas morning. I like the camera and it took some really good shots at Disney in May. It has a 12x zoom, so thats great for action shots and close ups, but the low lighting pictures are a lot to be desired. Matter of fact, if I'm taking inside pictures, I have to turn on all the light available to keep the pictures from being "orangey". I read that this is one of the few things that the camera needs work on ... of course I read this after I get the camera. BUT, the whole story is that coming in from DD's football game the other day, I dropped it and broke the battery "door" off and now I can't use it. I was so bummed and almost cried because I couldn't get the camera on at first! I knew DH wouldn't buy me another one and I can't go without a camera (although I have 3 "good" film cameras to use). But I finally got it one, but I'll probably end of spending a small fortune having it fixed! UGH!!!!

3) Husband. I really don't anything to say, other than mine is at home today, because, we'll I'm not sure, other than he called in sick and he is going to the doctor. Something about his shoulder hurting, but a different hurt than normal. Whatever that mean!?!?!?!

4) Scrapbooking ................ I'm so ready to be finished with this craftfair project. I'm getting the hankering to work on Emilee's books using the my new Becky Higgins sketches book. I was looking at it again last night and its pretty cool. At first I didn't like it very much, but the more I look, the more I see that I can really use it. I so hate thinking about where to put pictures. Maybe this weekend sometime I can work on a page or two for her books, just to get me through the hump!

We'll I gotta run ......... see ya later. Oh yea, I'm going to post some pictures of my doggy if I can ever figure out how!

That business idea ..........

I'm still working on it. My company name is Heart to Heart Memories. I've even secured a domain name: Hearttoheartmemories.com and hearttoheartcustomscrapbooking.com. At least something like that. The second one was on suggestion from the customer service guy at GoDaddy.com. He said I needed scrapbooking in the title and since they are custom scrapbooks, it would be good to have both in the title. We'll direct people over to the hearttoheartmemories and they'll never know the difference. I still don't have my business liscense. BUT, I'm making paper bag albums like crazy trying to get ready for my craft fair. I've got about 8 done and one sold, so I've got to make a duplicate of it. I was really on a roll, but now they are all starting to look a like. Is that bad? My creative juices are starting to dry up! I think I might switch and make some 8x8 gift albums for a while just to have something different to do.

I still haven't told DH that I'm starting a real business. I'm kinda scared of what he'll think or say. He's not the most supportive person in the world and I can't really blame him. I know I can't make money doing this full time, so it'll be a part time job. And I know that he has put his dreams aside for the family and job.... like hunting. I'm sure he'd love to be on the "dream season". Maybe one day he can be (when he can figure out how to work and hunt at the same time!!!)

I want to start a business

Okay, not that I expect to make money, but it would be fun to actually know if I could. I want to make gift albums and custom scrapbook albums. I'd also like to give individual beginner classes. My first venture is to make some things for my company craft fair. I'm going to make paper bag albums, a few gift albums and a few altered paint cans.

Its really a chore to start a business. Luckily, I won't need a loan and having a buiness license lets me right off some of my expenses like; a new photo printer to copy pictures for people, ink, adhesive, milage and other cool stuff. But there is a lot of stuff through the local goverment to do. It'll take me a day off work to do just some of it (hopefully we can get it all done.)

I think I could advertise the more affluent parts of town, which would be better because they actually have more money to burn. I could put up flyers or business cards at the local librarys, Micheals, vet offices, YMCA's, and even maybe churches. I also hope to put some cards out at my LSS and ask them to refer people to me.

Now, I just have to convence Hubby that this is a good idea.

Why is it ...........

When you try to make a stand for something, it usually backfires? Here's the situation. Emilee is a cheerleader. I think she was born to cheer (I pray daily its not something I'm pushing her into, but thats another story for another time). She loves to cheer, dance, tumble, the whole nine yards. Since she's only 8 and we really don't have "competive" cheerleading in our area (not affordable anyways), she cheers Jr. Pro football, which is what I did. She started at age 5 as a Mascot and now has moved up to the 9/10 yr old squad, because, we'll they gave her an option because they needed cheerleaders on that squad. She's pretty good, loud, taking gymnastics to learn the tumbling and has natural dance rhythm. The stand I took, not moving her from our "home" park to another park. See, our community park has always been a community park. Not state or Metro owned, but self supported by the community. Then a couple years ago, we let the county take it over, because we wanted to expand and have them brunt the majority of the bills. The deal is the community still do the majority of the up keep, runs the connession stand and has "president and board". The problem is, everyone is tired of the president and those "in charge", but nobody can get them out of office. Our community park has like $20,000 in the bank and we still do fundraisers out the ying-yang to pay for everything. So, every year we lose more and more families because they get tired of dealing with the crap. My husband wanted to go to another park this year, but I refused. We both (hubby and I) played at this park from the time we were 5 till 18. There was politics involved even then, we just didn't deal with it because we were the kids. I really want to have that since of community that we had growing up. But, I just disagree with so much that goes on with the cheerleaders, that I'm almost to the point of saying ..... I wish we had moved. One day maybe I'll grow and back bone and stick up to those crazy controling people!!!