Whats on my mind today?

My job. I don't like it much. But it draws a pay check. I don't feel fullfilled. I think I'd be much happier working 3 days a week and scrapbooking the other 2. Wouldn't we all? I so enjoyed my Monday and Friday off last week, but I know if I worked PT, I wouldn't be able to shop for scrapbooking stuff like I did those two days because my salary would be less. So, there lays the problem .... less work, less money, same bills and still a child to put through private school. I guess I'll continue to work. 30 more years as my husband put it last night. My answer, I don't think so, no way am I working 30 more years!!!! 30 years ......... UGH!!!!!


On the upside, I finished an 8x8 album for a girlfriend at work Saturday night. I'm giving it to her for a shower gift. I estimate that its worth about $40.00. Probably more than I would have spent on her, but I'm hoping it will be good exposure, as she lives in another part town. It only took me about 8 days to finish it. Thats about 8 to 10 hours of work for me, which means I'm only paying myself between $5 to $4 per hour. WOW! Its a very simple book though, mostly pattern paper, some ribbon, a few rubons and computer generated monthly labels (what she wanted). I'll scan or take pictures of some of the pages tonight. I used mostly Rob & Bob slab papers and some Christina Cole papers (very pretty!!!).

I'm starting a 6x6 album (for pay) today for a co-worker here at work. She's having her first grand-girl! She's very excited. I'm kinda nervous about working with a 6x6, which doesn't leave much room for emblishments or titles. But she picked the size, so what the customer wants, the customer gets.

We saw Shaggy Dog this weekend. VERY cute movie. DD will probably get it on DVD since I liked it so much. Tim Allen did a great job as a the dog!


More later ........

Hobby Lobby and their success

My friend Sarah posted about Hobby Lobby on a recent blog http://lovelettersillustrated.blogspot.com/ which reminded me of a great article that I had read. I'll paraphrase and retype quickly some of the reason Hobby Lobby is successful according to several different vendor. This is can be found on Mike Hartnett, Feb 2004 Creative Leisure New in the Business Wise column.

The article starts out like this:

From opening a 300 sq ft store to 1.1 billion dollars? They are closed on Sundays, don't have the fancy POP technology at checked counters, etc.... So how did David Green achieve such success. They asked some vendors who sell to HL and are HL's competitors.

1) manufacture much themselves and import a much larger proportion of product directly from Asia. (this is the kickers) In many cases they will buy new lines from a vendor, but once they see the sales movement, "knock it off" themselves. They are very open about this strategy and as a manufacturer you have to decide whether this type of business is worthwhile (they manufactur, distribute and retail their own product)
2) keep product on shelves
3) store size and product mix attracts a very broad consumer base
4) lease costs are lower because they tend to operate in "secondary" locations.
5) hire genuinely good people
6) buyers have YEARS of experience
7) Honesty and integrity
8) Very easy to do business with them
9) straight forward business
10) they open new stores regulary, but only if they can use their own trucks to ship goods to them
11) they don't make HUGE margin on everything they sell
12) loyal employees


I've also read somewhere that they own their own construction company, so anytime they remodel an exististing store (which as stated in #4) they use their own people, so they are making money for themselves. Hobby Lobby incorporates a lot more than just the store, they have lots of subsidary.

I think HL is a facsinating company, considering they are closed on Sunday's and still make money hand over fist!

More later!

{New baby}

One of my very best friends had a baby girl yesterday!!! YEA! I've very excited for her. She and her hubby have been married a couple of years, first child together. I can't wait to see her and the baby. I think I'm gonna look for a 11 x 8 1/2 album for her, solid color and do a baby album for her pictures. I'm sure with her 3 sisters she'll have a ton!


I'm feeling the effects of working full-time and trying to have a "home" business also. Lately I've had no energy for scrapbooking and I need to get some stuff done. I've got a paper bag album started, a couple pair of altered jeans and cards started for the Livery Stables. I have 3 baby books to do and I could stand to work on my own stuff a little too! My plan is to work on things this weekend some take off Monday and work and then I'm taking off Friday, so maybe Thursday night I can get most of my laundry done so I can work most of the next weekend too!

DH and I talked about private schools last night again for DD. The plan has always been to send her to Davidson Academy, but they have annouced that they are planning to move to Hendersonville. So Goodpasture is next on the list, which is a little cheaper. But still expensive. We'll never have another new car again! Sending her to Goodpasture is like having a $450 car payment for the next 8 years!!!! And the bad thing is that its likely that they'll hold her back because she's struggling in Math. Poor kid. She got my Math genes, which are almost non-existent.

Today is the first day of the next 10 week session of WeightWatchers. I'll post later my goal.

By the way .....

If anyone knows of Mid-TN craft fairs coming up, please let me know. I'm thinking of setting up in one or two this year and need to start working on stuff. THANKS!

I missed the Wednesday post ........ sorry!

I had a meeting all day yesterday. From 8:00 - 3:00 ......... oh my goodness..... what a boring day. I feel like I missed a whole day at work since I wasn't at my desk much.

Weighed yesterday and signed up for another 10 week session with Weight Watchers. The first session (which I was in for 9 weeks) I lost 13 lbs. No too shabby, especially considering I didn't try that hard the last 3 weeks. I do seem to be more aware of my portions and what I'm eating. I do try to get more healthly food. But I've had pizza a couple of times and even fried chicken tenders and french fries. Although I have to say, with the Chuck E Cheese pizza, I had two pieces and that was it and it was plain cheese. With my work pizza, its a personal pan size and I had two pieces, but they had ham and pineapple. I think just being aware of your serving sizes and trying to eat healthly things really help. PLUS, I don't snack anymore, especially after supper at night. I did have one and half scoops of ice cream last night, but it was the Purity 1/2 the fat ice cream. Pretty good stuff!!!

I thought I had lost my cell phone this morning. I got in my car yesterday and I didn't have it. I figured I had left it on my desk at work. But when I got here this morning, it was around. When I logged into email, I had a message from someone who works a floor below me that found it in our parking garage. It must have fallen out of my purse. I'm SO CELL PHONE addicted! I hated not having it. I think I must have needed to use it about 400 times on the way home yesterday! I'm just glad its back!!!!

My darling daugther got caught cheating on a quiz yesterday. Using her calculator under her desk!!! Can you believe it! In 3rd grade!!!! She was honest and when the teacher asked her what she was doing, she said "cheating"!!! And then she told me before I had to sign the sheet with the teachers note on it. I giver her props for being honest enough to tell the truth .... she was grounded from the TV and playing with her Barbie house. Parenting .... ugh!!!

Okay, let me ask this? At what age does your hairstyle need to reflect your age? KWIM? I'm 35, I started growing out my hair about 4 years ago. I went through a faze where I wanted it pretty short, but all of the sudden I wanted long hair. So I've spent 4 years growing out my bangs and length. Its about 2 inches short of being in the middle of my back. And straight. But lately I'm thinking its time for a change. Either curly and long or shorter and straight. I also started thinking, I'm I too old for long, straight hair? I gotta deceide before the 16th, which is my hair appointment day, cut and color!

CARPET

Here's a picture of the tile installed and the color my wall. See the gross carpet peeking in the picture, its gone! Completely outta there!

Can you believe, I've fallen in love with a cheap carpet? Its a Berber, but it's a stocked carpet at Lowe's, which means not all stores have it and only a few have the 32 feet I need. One of my jobs today (other than my real job) is to call the Gallatin and the Dickson Lowe's to see if they have enough before we drive to either one. I can't wait to get this carpet down. After the carpet is installed (on Tuesday), then we can get the couch (which is at the neighbors) After we get it moved, we'll start getting the trim to paint and have someone help Steve install it. I guess while that is happening, I can buy another big screen TV. I wish I had a picture of the carpet sample, I'd post it. Maybe this weekend I can.

Let me just start by saying.........

I hope my hubby doesn't read this blog!?!?!? I have spent WAY, WAY, WAY too much money on scrapbooking in the past week. I ordered brads and stuff from Paper Wishes, I went to ScrapIt and Hobby Lobby last Thursday, Scrappuccino's on Saturday and Memories In Bloom last night! Let me tell ya, I've got lots of stuff and lots of inspiration!!!! I need about three days off (in addition to the weekend) to work on all the stuff I got rambling around in my brain!

At MIB I bought some cool Scenic Route chipboard letters and the Scenic Route Christmas line (I might be behind on that one, but its really pretty). I also bought some of the new CHATTERBOX paper, which I LOVE. Chatterbox is my favorite line ever!!!!! I know there's a lot more that I bought (considering how much money I spent) but I just can't think right now. I WANTED the Basic Grey Notch tool, all the Creative Imagination paper & embellishments, some of the QK icings and ALL the Chatterbox paper! Maybe soon, after I save up enough money!!!

MY WEDNESDAY POST

Today was weigh-in day. (Remember, I didn't go weigh last week)... down -3.2lbs. I was hoping for a little more, like 5 lbs because I could actually wear a pair of pants today and that I couldn't wear a couple of weeks ago. I lost a total of 11.6lbs! YEA me. I'm signing up for another 10 sessions of Weight Watchers next week. If I can lose another 11.6lbs, I'll be extremely happy!

I've been working on a small scrapbook album that has already been paid for. I need a couple sheet of pink & green, so after work I'm going to Clarksville, Memories In Bloom. It will take me about 45 to 50 min to get there from Downtown, but I think it will be worth it. I don't plan on buying much, but we'll see!!! MIB, Scrap It! and Scrappuccino's are my favorite stores ever! I can't wait to see the new stuff at MIB.

I'll be leaving work soon, hopefully! I'll post tomorrow what I buy!

I HAVE PICTURES TO SHARE!

Everyone loves pictures. Here are pictures of a pair of blue jeans I altered for Emilee similar to Heidi Swap's. You know, they were the rage last year :-). I thought they'd be most cute for a kid, so here's my first attempt. I used acrylic paint and mixed fabric medium with it, but really only was pleased with the black. The white paint turned out okay, but the pink wasn't as pink as I wanted. So since then, I've bought some actual fabric paint in white, pink and sparkle. Emilee's dragonflies and butterflies have alittle sparkle on them. Most of the stamps you'll recongize as Making Memories or Li'l Davis. The butterfly and dragonfly are from Micheals

WEIGHING; CARPET; SCRAPBOOKING

Yesterday was weigh in day, I didn't go. I went to eat with friends at work for February birthdays. It was mine and Sherri's birthday lunch. We went to J Alexanders. It cost me $19.22 for lunch. I got chicken & smashed potatoes and fruit tea. They add $2.22 for tip because there was 11 of us. WOW, expensive lunch. But it was pretty good. Just a lot of food! Back to weighing, I did weigh this morning on our scales at work and according to them, I had actually lost more weight. YEA! Now, I don't weigh again till next Wednesday, but I plan on being very good for the next week, so maybe I'll have a GREAT week. I'd really like to get down another 10 lbs before April... and that would be a total of 18 lbs since I started. That would keep me in a size 12 clothes, which is fine with me.

Carpet: I've found carpet, Berber, light colored with specks. Its nice. Something that isn't expensive, so if needed, it can be easily replaced. Its just making sure we get the right amount. The problem, carpet only comes in 12 ft or 15 ft widths. My room width is 16 ft. The length of the room is 24 ft, that means we can use 2 12ft width of carpet, each being 16 ft long. I would have a seem running through the middle of my room, no problem. Well, I woke up this morning thinking about the support pole in the basement, you know, the pole that holds up your house!?!?!? Well, it doesn't move, so in order to put carpet down, you have to cut a seam from the wall and put the carpet around it, no big deal UNLESS, the pole isn't exactly in the middle of the room. Your thinking, huh? See, if the carpet is only 12 ft wide and the pole is more than like 15 ft from the wall, I'll have two seems only like 2 ft apart in a major walk way. I don't think thats good. So that means I'll have to spend $150 more to get the 15 ft width so I only have ONE seam! Clear as mud? And yes, the difference in the amount of carpet I need between 12 ft wide and 15ft wide is $150!!! Thats a lot when you're trying to stay within a budget and still need trim, TV and couch!

Scrapbooking: I'm ready to scrapbook some. I made a couple of cards last night. It was suppose to be Emilee making a thank you card, but I ended up making hers and using the extras to make another almost exactly like it for a b-day card. So, now that the basement is warm, I want to work on my scrapbooking.... BUT we're to a point in the room that I can help, so I doubt I'll get to do a lot of scrapbooking while DH is painting trim, he'll be expecting me to help. Which I guess is only fair! But I do plan on getting to Scrap It tonight, so I'll post tomorrow what I buy!!!

{I gained!!!}

Not that I'm surprised. I've gotten really lazy on counting and recording the points or just not caring. It doesn't help that we went to a b-day party Saturday night and I had one small piece of b-day cake and another somewhat small piece of coconut cake (homemade with fruit in it - yummy!). Then Sunday we had the Cheesecake thingy at Applebee's. Emilee and I split it, but still it was HEAVEN!!! So, I gain +.2 ! Yup, thats all. Only 2 ounces!!!! I was stoked that I could eat like that and somewhat maintain. Now if I was excersing, those ounces probably would not have crept back on. Next week's weigh in won't be any better. Its a hard week when its your b-day. Around here we celebrate with b-day lunches for 2 or 3 weeks!!! I went out to eat lunch yesterday and today. Yesterday was cracker barrel and I was really good, except the cornbread muffin and then today, not too bad, except the friend cornbread I had at Tex's! Last night I cooked spaghetti, which was not bad, I use venison and wheat noodles, but I have to cook cresent rolls for DH and I couldn't resist one slathered in honey butter!!!! Oh well, you have to enjoy life sometimes! Back on it tomorrow :-)

Thanks girls for the tips about the Christine Cole paper. I thought I had seen it in 12 x 12, but honestly never in the packs. I just assumed.

Anyone have carpet installed lately? Or better yet, know a carpet guy/person? We're putting down carpet in the bonus room and were trying not to spend over $1000 on it. I know that really cheap for a 16 x 24 room, but I want to cut corners wherever I can. We have a quote for Mohawk carpet and padding for $1369 is that bad? That includes everything, removing old, moving furniture, installation. And we got a quote for hardwood that was about $3000 over what we've budgeted for that. We thought it would cost us around $5000. I guess I'm a major cheapsake, I hate to spend money on the house, I don't know why, but I do!!

Anyway, just a little venting.

See ya!

{Time for a change}

As you can see, I've changed my blog a little. I like change. Change is good. Its time to reflect on what's worked and what hasn't. I think that the reason I don't mind the remodeling we're doing. We're making something new. Its nice! But I have to admit, it hurts going through it!

I don't have much to say other than ....... I need a new headshot so I can post it here. Maybe this weekend.

AND the best part ........ I REALLY want to scrapbook. Isn't that great! I think I want to shop first and see new stuff, so I'm going to try and hold off shopping as long as possible, I want to see the CHA stuff.

Anyone in the Nashville area know where I can get a 12 x 12 pack of Christina Cole paper? I really want some of them!!!

{Wednesday}

So, its Wednesday again. Time to update the ol' weight loss story. Down another 1.4lbs. Total lost 8.2 lbs!!! Yea! I THINK I might hit goal! We've got 4 more weeks and I need at least 2 lbs per week for the next four. Thats gonna be hard though cause we're going to eat at Kobe's Steak House Friday night for my b-day and then Sunday with my parents to Applebee's (I can get a WW meal there) where I can get their to die for Apple Cheesecake Chimchinga thingy. Its too die for!!! I told her no b-day cake this year. Its a serious problem for me. I can eat b-day cake till I make myself sick.... honestly!

Monday night I had someone help me with my income tax, cause I had to add the business stuff in there. I've never filled out a schedule c before. But it was pretty easy. We're getting back enough to pay our property tax and use some for the house (either a new couch or recovering my grandmother solid wood couch!) I can't wait to get a new couch and chair. I'm seriously hating the ones I have now!

We've got the downstairs room painted. Lyndhurst Timber is the color. Very masculine. I'll try and post a color if I can find the paint sample. We now have to pick out tile and carpet. Then comes the trim. After that a big screen TV! I vote to move the one upstairs, down, but DH says we need a new one? Whatever!!!

Gotta run to the eye doctor! Post more later!

Today is Wednesday ... Fat Meeting (as a friend puts it!)

My friend that does Weight Watchers with me calls it our "fat meeting". I weighed today. I lost 2.8lbs last week!!!! Total down 6.8lbs! I'm stoked. I know thats not a huge amount, but I'm not starving but I'm not totally full - somewhere in between. I think 2 lbs a week is a good amount. Maybe the slower it comes off, the easier it will be to keep it off. A good thing is my pants are fitting a little baggier! YEA! Maybe I can back into those 12's by mid-Feb and MAYBE 10's by the end of the summer.

I miss all the bloggers that are away at CHA this week. Heather White is about the only person around. We've been having a "conversation" about the remodeling work each of us is doing to our basements. I think I'll take a picture tonight and post if tomorrow. I want ya'll to see the wall color I picked out. A little different for me, but it is encouraging me to paint my bedroom (I have the paint, its a dark sage color). And then maybe my livingroom (it would be perfect if I could paint it before the new floors go in, but that asking way too much! I think my living room would be pretty in a warm yellow color. But I know DH would never go for it!

I'm taking off 1/2 day Friday help DH paint. Fun! Fun!

I can't get that groove thing back!!!

I just can't seem to get into scrapbooking lately. I haven't done anything in almost a month. The last time I scrapped, I went to Scrappuccino's and did 3 pages, but none are complete. They lack titles or embelishments of some sorts. I've even got Design Team assignments that I can't get into doing. On thing I think is that I worked like a stinkin dog before the craft fair to get all that stuff made and I got really burned out. Makes sense doesn't it? AND now, we're remodeling one of our basement rooms which is adjacent to my scraparea, so a lot of stuff got moved over to my area. I have several chairs, a ceiling fan, sewing machine, etc in my area...... plus there is no heat down there. And while its not freezing, its cold. My hands get like little ice cubes. It makes it really hard to work with cold numbs. Enough excuses, huh? I just want to get my groove thing back..... maybe I need some shopping!!! :-)

I forgot .......

I got my camera back night before last. I probably didn't talk about this much, but I dropped my Minolta DiMage Z3 several months ago and was without a camera. For any major event, I'd borrow my mom's Canon Rebel XT (SWEET camera btw!), but then have to give it back. We even shared on Christmas. But for Christmas, my sweet dad decided to get mine fixed for me. The battery compartment door had broken off. So he took it Wolf Camera and the sales guy told him its a common accident. So, it's been at the fixin' place for at least 8 weeks, but now its back. Of course, I haven't used it (don't have anything to take pictures of - oh yea, the haircut I gave my dog - that would be funny!!!) but I did put batteries in and set the date. Yea for me!!!

I weigh less..............

My weigh in sheet has -3.8 lbs!!!! YEA for me. I think thats great for the first week. I hope I don't stall. I haven't started excerising yet and probably won't till it gets a little warmer outside - so I can walk. Although my former boss toned up and lost some weight using pilates. So thats also an option ...... but right now I really don't have a place to do them. I need to wait till our bonus room is finished, maybe a month or so.

Speaking of bonus room. We've got drywall up, one coat of mud and should have most of the finishing done this weekend. Hopefully next weekend we can paint the ceiling and walls!!!

We've picked out carpet too. Cheap carpet, but it'll still be nice. My upstairs flooring is a huge issue. I think we've picked out the hardwoods, but now for the tile!!!

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!